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Return of the Living Blog

2012-01-10T09:37:00.016-05:00

So, here we are. This blog has been dead for almost two years and now this website is rising up from its grave-site. So I think my first post should be about the living dead. That's right, ZOMBIES! For quite a few years I have been intrigued by the whole Zombie-craze that's been going on. Growing up, I hated horror films. My family would watch them as I sat on the couch covering my eyes with my hands repeatedly saying "Tell me when it's safe to look." But as I got older I started to enjoy horror films. And the ones that I thought were the scariest and most entertaining were zombie films. I've watched quite a few of them and believe me, there are just as many horrible zombie films as there are good ones. I guess for me what makes zombies so scary is the fact that anyone could become one. You, a loved one, uncle Bob. (Yes, I know zombies aren't real just for the record...or are they?) So it's not so much the blood and gore part of zombie films I find scary, but it's scary in a psychological sense that anyone could become one. It would be difficult to kill a monster that was once your mother, father, brother, sister, spouse, or your best friend. And it would be difficult to know that this thing that used to be a loved one is now emotionless and wants to eat you alive.

I guess my fascination with zombies started back in the mid to late 90's when CAPCOM released the horror survival game: Resident Evil. By the time this came out, I had gotten over my fear of horror films, but this was a whole new ball game. How many of you who have played this game almost jumped through the ceiling while playing? I know I have, and I still do. There's something about playing a survival horror game that immerses you into the story more than a film can. It wasn't until many years later though that I started getting into the whole zombie phenomenon.

After watching a handful or two of zombie films, I decided to watch the original 1968 film "Night of the Living Dead" by George A. Romero. I don't usually like to watch movies that are older than me, but I was pleasantly surprised by how good this movie is. By today's standards it's pretty tame, but considering the time in which it came out, even I was shocked at some of the imagery. The movie caused some controversy when it was released. This film was released just before the MPAA rating system was put in place so kids were not prohibited from seeing this film. Even though the film was controversial and heavily criticized it was eventually selected by the Library of Congress for preservation into the National Film Registry as a film deemed "culturally, historically or aesthetically significant". Other film by Romero include: Dawn of the Dead, Day of the Dead, Land of the Dead, Diary of the Dead and Survival of the Dead.

Romero never actually referred to the Living Dead as "zombies". The term zombie actually comes from Haitian religion. It means an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means, such as witchcraft. But in today's terms the word zombie refers to an undead race in horror fiction.

Zombie Rules

Max Brooks, the son of actor/director/funny man Mel Brooks, wrote "The Zombie Survival Guide". I haven't read it yet, but I hope to someday as well as his other book "World War Z". So there are some rules about Zombies I'd like to talk about now. I think when movies, video games, and other zombie related things follow these guidelines, it make it a more enjoyable experience for me. I tend to prefer Romero's Zombies/Living Dead. The slow, lumbering ones that aren't extremely hard to deal with, but when in large hordes, become unstoppable. I don't like the fast moving Zombies that can run and climb walls and seem to have almost super-human strength. Zombies should have no more strength than that of their former self minus the sensitivity to pain. Whether zombies actually feel pain or not, it doesn't seem to bother them or slow them down.

We'll break this part down into categories.

How does one become a zombie?

Initially, I don't really have a preference on how zombies first come about, whether it's from radiation, a virus, or top secret government laboratory testing. But as the zombie invasion grows, how do others become zombies? Anyone who is bitten, scratched, or gets any kind of bodily fluid in their system from a zombie is bound to become one.

How long does it take to become a zombie?

Again, I don't have a preference on time. I think anywhere from a day to three days is an acceptable time. It should never be instant. Also the infected person would also notice changes as they are turning. They would slowly fade away, as the person becomes something entirely different than they were in their former life.

The Zombie lifestyle

Actually, zombies don't have much of a sense of style, or life for that matter. The only thing that keeps a zombie going is the need for food. They are very picky eaters and only enjoy the freshest meat, preferably the kind that tries to run away. Fast food, in a sense. This is why you don't see zombies eating each other and it's also how they know the difference between themselves and the living. Zombies seem to travel in large groups but I don't think it's because they enjoy socializing, I think it's just because they all happen to be in the same area at the same time. They all move together as a group because they are all driven by the same thing. Zombies are devoid of any personality and only resemble of what they once were. Whereas the basic daily routine of a person is eat, sleep, poop, the routine of a zombie is eat and then walk around until it finds something else to eat. Zombies never sit around after a big meal and think to themselves, "I can't believe I ate the whole thing" or "I'm never eating again." Some of them don't even have a stomach to fill, but it doesn't slow down their appetite. Also, zombies do not say "BRAINS!" they have no vocabulary other then moans and groans.

Zombie Movement

Zombies have poor motor function because for the most part they are dead. Rigor mortis has set in, as well as body decay. Just about anyone could out-run a zombie, but that zombie never gets tired which gives it unlimited endurance to keep moving without ever resting. Because of their slowness and quietness, they are able to sometimes sneak up on unsuspecting victims. But this isn't a strategic zombie tactic, it's just their nature and it works to their advantage.

Getting rid of zombies

Unfortunately there are no zombie extermination services as of yet, but we should really prepare ahead of time. So how do you kill something that's already dead? Zombies are dependent on their brains which have been reanimated. So, destroy the brain and the zombie is no longer a problem.

Well, that is a summary of "zombie rules". Click here for a more extensive look at the rules.

Zombie Films

Like I said before, there are just as many bad zombie films as there are good ones. I'm going to talk about some films now and explain why I think they are good, bad or don't quite fit the category of a zombie film in my opinion.

Let's start with the good:

George A. Romero's films. I've only seen "Night of the Living Dead" and "Dawn of the Dead". I have yet to see his other films, but I am looking forward to watching the other ones.

I've only seen the first three of the "Return of the Living Dead" films. I don't agree with a lot of what goes on in these movies such as talking zombies and severed body parts that still move, but I actually enjoy these movies because they're so ridiculous and funny.

Speaking of funny, I think the best Zombie comedy has to be "Shaun of the Dead" with Simon Pegg. There was also another zomcom (I just made up a new term!) called "Last of the Living" which was filmed in New Zealand. This one wasn't too bad either.

The Resident Evil series also gets a thumbs up. Movies based on video games usually have nothing to do with the game, but this one does pretty well, even though some of the characters in the movies aren't portrayed the same way they are in the game. I wish they would have left the game characters out of the movies altogether. I have yet to see the fourth installment in this series.

Here are some bad zombie films:

Zombie Honeymoon was horrible. It could have been good, but the movie kept going back and forth between being a comedy to being a drama and it just ended up becoming a flop.

Aaah! Zombies is another zombie comedy that gets a thumbs down in my book. It was an interesting concept, but they just went the wrong way with it. Four friends become zombies, but they don't realize it. To each other, they look normal. But to other people they look like zombies, except for drunk people who see them as normal. Yea...stupid.

The Horde is a French zombie film. Sure, it's action packed, but it lacks plot.

Day of the Dead, no, not the George A. Romero version, but the remake by Steve Miner. It wasn't absolutely horrible, but there is a brief scene where a zombie quickly crawls up the wall and then on the ceiling. It ruined it for me.

Films that don't quite fit the zombie category for me:

28 Days Later and 28 Weeks Later are great movies, don't get me wrong. They just miss the criteria for being zombie films though. Rather than being driven by hunger they are driven by the rage virus which causes them to violently attack anyone who is not infected.

I am Legend is another great movie and the novel of the same name by Richard Matheson is what inspired George A. Romero to write and direct "Night of the Living Dead". But again, the creatures in this film are able to think and crawl up walls, so it doesn't work for me as a zombie film.

The Passion of the Christ is also not a zombie film. Sure, Jesus comes back from the dead, but with a much greater purpose than eating people. Jesus comes back to share a message of hope, love and peace and encourages us all to do the same which is contrary to what a zombie would do.

The next thing I want to talk about are other zombie-ish things I am into right now.

"The Walking Dead" series on AMC is probably one of the best things on TV right now. I've been keeping up with it online since we don't have cable right now. The first season is on Netflix if you're interested. Not only is The Walking Dead one of the more graphic and gruesome shows I've ever seen, it also has a great story line. I've heard people say they're not really into zombie related stuff, but because of this show's great story line, they watch it. In fact the end of the last episode I watched left me speechless, I won't spoil it for you, but it was the episode from season 2 titled "Pretty Much Dead Already".

"We're Alive" is an audio podcast I listen to on iTunes. It's just like the old radio dramas from the old days, only newer. Great voice acting and great sound effects are all that's needed for you to visualize what is going on. This is great for those long car rides. Just don't listen and drive if you are too jumpy. Listen with caution.

"Plants vs. Zombies" is a really fun game. I have it on my mac and my stepson has it on his Nintendo DSi. In this game you defend yourself from attacking hordes of zombies by planting various plants in your yard. The plants have the ability to fight off the waves of zombies that try to invade your house. It's a very light-hearted and comical game. To get an idea of how fun this game is, watch the video below.

Here is the music video from the game as well.

I think I'll wrap up this post now, it's gone on long enough. I'll leave you now with part of a little project I've been working on. I used to draw comics in study hall back in high school and I miss doing that, so I decided to start up again. I just happened to make a zombie related comic. Enjoy!

Has it Really Been Almost Two Years?!

2012-01-05T22:47:00.003-05:00

Wow, that was a long break from blogging. I guess I just ran out of things to say. But much has happened in the past two years. To sum it up I've gotten married, moved twice and have had three, maybe four jobs...and oh yea, I've got a baby on the way in about a month, give or take. I'm not so sure what made me want to start blogging again and I don't quite know what made me stop in the first place. I'm not sure how often I'll be posting especially with a little bundle of joy on the way. I imagine a lot of my time will be spent with the little one. But I've been wanting to get back into doing this for some time now. So I would like to officially announce that Blogity-blah-blah-blog is back!

What's even more exciting is that something else I love is back. Five Iron Frenzy! FFIF is back, yes that's right, Freakin' Five Iron Frenzy! Go listen to their new single here.

Crazy Day!

2010-03-11T09:58:00.004-05:00

Tuesday morning started out just like any other normal day. I usually help out by taking Gabe to school on Tuesdays and Thursdays to help April out since she has to go to work earlier than normal on those days. I also had to go to Paris Uniforms to take a drug test before I could begin my new job (read my last post about my new job) Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong! I think they should rename Murphy's law to Lewis's law. Here's how it all went down: As I got ready to take Gabe to school I realized that I had locked my keys in the car the night before. I had used my air compressor to inflate Gabe's basketball and his bike tires. No problem though, I had a spare key in my wallet so I used that to open the car doors. Then I go to turn the key that's already in the ignition to find out that the key had been in the "on" position all night. The car's engine wasn't on, but the key was turned just enough to use up the battery. So I called April to let her know what was going on. She told me Gabe had a field trip that they had to leave for at 9:15am and it was already 8:40am...AHHHHHHH!

Fortunately, my friends Jesse and Natalie live close by. So Gabe and I walked to their house. Natalie opened the door after just waking up and offered us a ride to Gabe's preschool. As we neared the pre-school, I came to the realization that I left Gabe's backpack in my car which contained the money and permission slip for the field trip...AHHHHHHH!

Fortunately, Gabe's teacher allowed me to write a permission slip for him there and sign it and she said we could get the money to her later. Natalie took me back to my car and we tried jumping the battery. After a half-hour and many tries later the car just...would...not...turn...over...AHHHHHHH!

Fortunately, Natalie offered to give me a ride to Paris Uniforms so I could get my drug test done. She kept telling me to look on the bright side because she must have sensed I was getting a little stressed by now. She said "Look on the bright side, at least you don't have to get a pacemaker." (I was actually referred to a cardiologist about getting a pace maker at one time, I mentioned it in this post.) We arrived at my destination and I told her that she didn't have to wait for me since I didn't know how long I was going to be there. I went in and I was only there for about ten minutes, and I didn't have a ride home...AHHHHHHH!

Fortunately, I gave my friend Gary a call. He just happened to be working nearby and he was on his break. He picked me up in one of those little 4x4 utility vehicles which looked a little like this:

...except it was green. He drove me to where he parked his Bronco and let me borrow it. He told me a few good places to get a car battery. So I went and got the battery, took the old battery out of my car and put the new one in. I had never replaced a car battery before so all I could do was pray I was doing it right. After I finished I sat in the driver seat, closed my eyes, said a little prayer, and turned the key...AHHHHHHH!...I mean...VROOOOOOOM! It started!

So that was my crazy day. I think we need days like this once in awhile, but not too frequently. And did you notice, for every "AHHHHHHH!", there was a "Fortunately" in this story. I feel blessed to have some great friends that God has placed in my life. Tuesday would have been rough without them.

WWWE: I'm Going to Paris!

2010-03-09T14:46:00.005-05:00

If you have been reading and keeping up with this blog then you're probably wondering why I'm doing another WWWE, or Work, Work, Work Edition on my blog when I've talked about all the jobs I've had. Well, I have a new one! I'll be working as a delivery driver for a uniform rental company called Paris. After almost eight months of unemployment I finally have a job again!

I did a ride along yesterday for the route I'll be taking over. We started at 5am. (The sun doesn't even get up at 5am) We loaded uniforms, floor mats, shop towels, and a few other things into the truck. We traveled to about 20 different locations to make deliveries and to pick up uniforms, mats, and towels to be washed. It's a very physical job, and that's something I appreciate. If I don't have to spend my spare time in a fitness center because my job helps me get in shape, that's a bonus! Plus I'm tired of sit-down jobs. I worked an office job for almost two years, and I don't know if you've seen the movie Office Space, but it may as well be a documentary because a lot of what happens in that movie is true.

Today I went in for my drug test which I'm 99.999% sure I'll pass that one. They also have to check my driving background which I'm not worried about either. Haven't had a speeding ticket in over 5 years. God bless cruise control. Next Monday, I have to drive about two hours west of here to a town called Dubois for my orientation/training. I'll get to stay over night in a hotel and then finish up orientation on Tuesday. I'll start on Wednesday. I'll receive about three weeks of training and then I'm on my own.

This job has great benefits and it's quite a bit more money than my last job, plus I get commission. Out of all the jobs I've applied for and all the interviews I've had, this is probably the best one. Many times during my unemployment when I would get turned down for a job or not even get an interview I started questioning God, like I usually do in such a situation. With the wedding getting closer and closer and no way to pay for it I started asking God why I didn't have a job yet.

Sometimes I like to say that God is the God of close calls because so many of the things I pray for seem to happen at the last minute. But perhaps God isn't the God of close calls, perhaps he's the God of perfect timing.

I'm Not Satisfied with this Song

2010-03-03T10:30:00.007-05:00

So, the other day in church we sang a song called "Believe". I don't care for this song. In fact, I don't care for a lot of praise and worship music out there. So much of it is recycled, unimaginative, and uncreative. But a line in this song really stuck out to me and it bothered me. The line says, "Where's the power, the power of the cross in my life?"

I know many Christians see the cross as a symbol of the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for everyone, everywhere. I wear one myself sometimes. But saying that the cross has power, that bothers me. Why? Well, the cross is nothing more than a device designed to slowly and painfully kill someone, not to mention totally humiliate them in the process. "Where's the power, the power of the device designed to slowly and painfully kill some one, not to mention totally humiliate them in the process, in my life?" Does that sound right? What if Jesus were around at a different point in history and a different means was used to kill him?

"Where's the power, the power of the guillotine in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of the firing squad in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of walking the plank in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of the gallows in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of the electric chair in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of the lethal injection in my life?"

"Where's the power, the power of plunging into the sarlacc pit in my life?" (Star Wars reference, I'm a geek)

You get the point.

I know I'm probably just ranting, but I think we really need to think about some of the lyrics that show up in the songs we sing in church and ask, "Does this really even make any sense?". Anyway, if you would like to critique the song yourself, here are the lyrics.

"Believe"

I say on Sunday how much I want revival
But then on Monday, I can't even find my Bible
Where's the power
The power of the cross in my life

I'm sick of playing the game of religion
I'm tired of losing my reason for living
Where's the power
The power of the cross in my life

I'm not content just to walk through my life,
Giving in to the lies, walking in compromises now
We cry out as a generation that was lost
But now is found in the power of the cross

We believe in you
We believe in the power of your word that is true
We believe in you
So we lay down our cause
That our cross might be found in you

I'm not satisfied doing it my own way
I'm not satisfied to do church and walk away
I'm not satisfied there's no love in my life but You
I'm not satisfied living in yesterday's hour
I'm not satisfied to have the form but not the power
I'm not satisfied, Lord I am crucified in You

We believe in you
We believe in the power of your word that is true
We believe in you
So we lay down our cause
That our cross might be found in you

So we lay down our cause
That our cross might be found in you

What are your thoughts?

Flesh Eating Film Reels

2010-02-25T21:41:00.004-05:00

I wanted to share another short film today called Flesh Eating Film Reels. I remember watching this on HBO when I was little. I remember enjoying it but at the same time it was kind of scary. I think it was the way the filmstrip is animated. It still kind of freaks me out to this day. But I haven't seen this probably since I was 5 or 6 and I just happened upon it on YouTube the other day. Enjoy!

And here's a little more nostalgia for you if you remember watching HBO in the early 80's:

Brings back memories.

Read "Hear No Evil" Because I Plan to...Someday

2010-02-15T15:06:00.004-05:00

You may have found your way here via Matthew Paul Turner's blog, Jesus Needs New PR, looking for a review of his new book "Hear No Evil" which releases tomorrow, Feb. 16th! I admit I haven't read it yet, but I plan on doing it...someday. I do have a copy of MPT's "Churched" which is still in my "to-be-read" stack of books. I actually did read the "Christian Culture Survival Guide" and loved it. I am an avid reader of MPT's blog and watcher of his two YouTube channels, MatthewPaulTurner, and thewoak. His latest video is great:

So I don't even have to read "Hear No Evil" to tell you that it's going to be a great read. How's that for a review? A review driven by faith alone that Matthew has once again written yet another masterpiece!

I first found out about Matthew Paul Turner when I picked up the "Christian Culture Survival Guide" at the Purple Door Arts and Music Festival in Lewisberry, PA in 2007 at the Relevant booth. I found it hard to put down. I was at a turning point in my life where I started challenging what I believed. This book was a real eye-opener for me. I eventually came to a point in my life where I realized it was okay to have questions and doubts rather than pretend to know all the answers. Reading what Matthew has written has been a part of what has brought me to where I am now.

So I suggest that you not just read "Hear No Evil" but read other things Matthew has written. He'll make you laugh, he'll make you cry...we'll maybe not cry, not intentionally anyway. He'll make you think and make you laugh again.

Read it.

Enjoy it.

You will not be disappointed.

I know I won't be.

Bored Panda

2010-01-22T13:30:00.012-05:00

Today I would like to share a website I found called Bored Panda-the Only Magazine for Pandas. It is a treasure chest of random visual oddities, I think that's how it can be best described. I'll share just a few images along with links to the articles that go with each image. I found this site through StumbleUpon.com of course. I'll share five interesting things I found at this site and I'll leave the rest of the exploring up to you.

1) Here are some images from an article called "Top 33 World's Strangest Buildings"

The Kansas City Library, Missouri.
Apparently they carry books with large print.

Rotating Tower, Dubai.
It would be great to live in an apartment where you can say, "Honey, the sun is glaring on the TV, could you turn the room about 90º?"

The Basket Building, Ohio
I'm assuming it's a mental institution.

2) "One Sheet of Paper"-Here are some works of art made from one sheet of paper (just in case you couldn't figure that out from the title of the article).

Impenetrable Castle
I don't know about that, last time I checked, scissors beat paper.

Look at that detail!

White Hand.
Oh no, that skeletal hand is attacking a turkey!

Down the River.

"Do you hear that sound? Why is the current getting faster?"

Holding onto Myself.
Nice title.

3) When God Runs Out of Paint: 26 Albino Animals

"I am not a lab rat!"

"Corn always makes me sneeze."

"Wanna see my impression of a water sprinkler?"

4) Top 40+ Creative Ads Made to Stop You Smoking

Sorry, no funny comments for these ones. There really isn't anything funny to say about these. (Click the one above to see it larger if you can't read the label.)

5) 25 Incredible Photos Made without Photoshop

Are you sure that water is clean?

We have lift off.

She's an awfully mean big sister.

Hope you enjoyed these images, head on over to Bored Panda to see more!

Rest in PEZ

2010-01-15T13:11:00.006-05:00

The other day I heard some sad news. Curtis Allina, inventor of the PEZ dispenser died at the age of 87 on December 15, 2009. PEZ has always been one of my favorite candies. It's not only a big part of American pop culture, but a part of pop culture the world over.

Here are some fun facts about PEZ.

1) People who enjoy collecting PEZ dispensers can attend an annual PEZ convention in Ohio, Missouri, California, Minnesota, Connecticut, South Carolina, Austria, Finland, and Sweden.

2) In 2006, a PEZ dispenser in the form of a clear 50's space gun sold for $11,000 on eBay.

3) PEZ candy comes in the following flavors: Apple, Cherry, Chocolate, Coffee, Cola, Grape, Lemon, Lime, Orange, Peppermint, Raspberry, Sour Watermelon, Sour Green Apple, Sour Blue Raspberry, Sour Pineapple, Strawberry, Sugarfree Orange, Sugarfree Lemon, Sugarfree Strawberry, and Yogurt.

4) There is a documentary called PEZheads: the movie. Here's the trailer:

5) A Tweety Bird PEZ made a special guest appearance on Seinfeld:

Here are a few pictures of some PEZ dispenser collections:

You can even put your own head on a PEZ dispenser:

(Click the pic to enlarge)

Since PEZ has become such a huge part of pop culture, I think a statue should be erected in memory of the man who invented the PEZ dispenser, Curtis Allina. So I took the liberty of making some concept art for a statue:

Rest in PEZ, Mr. Allina.

Jumping

2010-01-05T16:17:00.004-05:00

Just wanted to share a short animated film that I remember from my childhood. I remember watching it at the day care I attended as a child. It's called "Jumping" by Osamu Tezuka, and it won the grand prize in 1984 at the World Festival of Animated Films in Zagreb, Croatia.

After watching this again after so many years it definitely takes on a whole new meaning for me. It's funny how we view things when we're children and then take another look at them when we are older. Now that I think of it, I can't believe they showed this at the day care I attended.

Calls From Chris: Part Three

2010-01-04T21:05:00.003-05:00

I thought I would start off the New Year with another installment of "Calls From Chris". Click here for part one, and here for part two if you haven't heard the previous ones, or if you want to go back and listen to them again. I feel I should make a disclaimer before I post this. Something I haven't mentioned before is that I am not posting these to make fun of Chris in anyway. Chris is the kind of person that can brighten your day just by being around him, and I just want to share that with everyone. So enjoy "Calls From Chris: Part Three"!

Christmas Video Countdown Part Seven

2009-12-24T10:54:00.005-05:00

Ok, I'm gonna wrap up this Christmas video countdown today. I'll do #24 and #25 since I shouldn't be wasting my time on the internet on Christmas day. I'll be wasting time with my family instead...I mean spending quality time with my family. Before we get started I just want to talk about the whole "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" controversy. A bunch of other blogs I read have mentioned it as well and I agree with what they say. I don't think it matters what your holiday greetings happens to be, what matters is where your heart is and what your motivation is when you say it. If you say "Happy Holidays" because you are being friendly, that's fine. If you say "Happy Holidays" out of spite, that's not fine. Same thing goes with "Merry Christmas". If you say it, fine. But if you say it after someone has told you "Happy Holidays" and you reply with an arrogant "MERRY CHRISTMAS!" that's not fine. So here's a video that I found amusing that kind of deals with what I just talked about.

#24) Happy Holidays or Merry Christmas:

I don't think the problem lies with certain religions, systems of belief, lifestyles, etc. I think the problem happens when people of certain religions, and systems of belief try to force others into doing things their way. Plus there are always going to be people who just want to argue about things and they'll always find a way. This time of year seems to be the time those people tend to get loud and voice their opinion openly. Look, if you celebrate Hanukkah, then celebrate Hanukkah. If you celebrate Kwanzaa, then celebrate Kwanzaa. If you celebrate Christmas, then celebrate Christmas. If you don't celebrate anything, then don't celebrate anything you party-pooper...just kidding.

I accept however people want to greet me. If someone wishes me a Merry Christmas, great! If someone tells me Happy Hanukkah, right on! If another person tells me "Have a kickin' Kwanzaa", awesome! If you have found something that you believe in and you want to share it, go for it. That's why I'll continue to say Merry Christmas because I believe in Jesus Christ and what he taught us and what he came to do for us. I want to share that, but I'm not going to force it on anybody. If someone has a problem with me saying it, then that's their problem, not mine. If I tell someone Merry Christmas and they reply with any other kind of friendly greeting besides Merry Christmas I will be thankful for that. I feel like I'm repeating myself. But anyway, to wrap this up, there is a little boy named Linus who sums up what Christmas is all about. Remember you don't have to watch it and you don't have to agree with it. I'm just saying this is what I'm about, this is what I agree with.

#25) Linus and the true meaning of Chirstmas:

That's what Christmas is about. It's about the birth of Jesus Christ. I think the best way to celebrate Christ and celebrate Christmas is to spend quality time with friends and family. To love and help the needy. It's not so much about the gifts, even though it's nice to give and receive. It's definitely should not be about stressing out, because if you do, you're missing the point. Sometimes this time of year can be depressing for some people and that's understandable. We need to reach out to those people. We need to be a light to the world. Some of our lights have dimmed, I know mine has at times. But let's do our best to make our light shine. Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Happy Christmas, Merry Holidays, Happy Kwanzaa, Happy Hanukkah, or whatever you prefer.

BONUS!) I found this clip while searching for "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and I had to share it:

Christmas Video Countdown Part Six

2009-12-23T09:05:00.004-05:00

Is there anything you don't like about Chirstmas? I'm sure we could all name a few things we don't particularly care for. Today I found some videos of people/animals that don't like certain things at Christmas time.

#19) Here's a dog wearing a jersey that doesn't like snowmen:

#20) Some kids think it's terrible when Santa eats their cookies:

#21) This kid's grandmother was a good sport for helping him make an instructional video on how and how not to react to getting a bad Christmas gift. I thought it was funny:

#22) One of my personal pet peeves are those tacky over-priced battery operated animatronic Christmas decorations:

I've always wanted to do that too!

#23) And speaking of tacky over-priced battery operated animatronics, the Grinch doesn't like Elmo:

Christmas Video Countdown Part "FIVE GOLDEN RINGS!"

2009-12-18T11:52:00.004-05:00

Don't worry, I'm not going to have a video of the 12 days of Christmas. That song is so annoying. I'm going to do something worse...here are some songs that parody the 12 days of Christmas.

#16) The 12 Days of Christmas, Indian style:

#17) The 12 Days of Christmas, Canadian style, (maybe it should be the 12 days of Christmoose) brought to you by Bob and Doug Mckenzie from the 1983 movie "Strange Brew" starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas, no not the Wendy's guy. After the song is a preview for an animated series which may be a little inappropriate for the little ones:

#18) The 12 Days of Christmas Norah Jones and Jimmy Kimmel style in a tribute to YouTube? Didn't see that one coming did you? Me neither:

By the way, Christmas is only a week away. Good thing too, it's hard to find videos for this countdown.

Christmas Video Countdown Part Four

2009-12-15T10:28:00.003-05:00

It's time for some more videos!

#12) One of my favorite Chrismas specials was Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas by Jim Henson. Here are some bloopers from that special, it's a long video, but it's funny, especially if you are a fan of this one:

#13) A couple of inconsistencies with Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer:

#14) Kids love Santa...at least they do from a distance. Up close, not so good. I love the picture shown 46 seconds into this video:

#15) And here's robot Santa helping out with the Salvation Army:

Christmas Video Countdown Part Three

2009-12-10T20:26:00.003-05:00

Okay, I'm back with a few more videos. One of my favorite Christmas specials they played on TV when I was little was the Garfield Christmas Special. I don't know it they still play it, but I found it in three parts on YouTube, enjoy:

#9) Garfield Christmas Special part 1:

#10) Garfield Christmas Special part 2:

My favorite part is when they light the tree and everyone goes "Ooooooohhhhh!" Their mouths look funny. Even if you don't watch the whole thing, atleast watch 2:32-2:44

#11) Garfield Christmas Special part 3:

Christmas Video Countdown Part Two

2009-12-08T16:35:00.003-05:00

The videos I posted yesterday were fun, but I want to be serious today and show a clip from Morgan Spurlock's documentary "What Would Jesus Buy?" I know it's not very "Christmas-y" but I think it's something you should watch and really think about.

#8) What Would Jesus Buy?:

"More consumption, less satisfaction...how about, less consumption and more satisfaction."

Wise words.

It's sad to think that some of the clothes we wear and the toys our kids play with have caused injuries and cost lives to people who get paid only cents per day working 19 hour shifts. Is that what Christmas has become? Does this kind of Christmas have anything to do with Christ? Absolutely not.

Christmas Video Countdown

2009-12-07T22:30:00.003-05:00

I thought I would do a Christmas video countdown for each day in December until the 25th. I know it's the 7th already so I have some catching up to do, I'll do it right now. I will find the funniest, most sentimental, craziest, most memorable, and meaningful Christmas videos I can find. They won't be in any particular order. So here we go with the first seven videos:

#1) We'll start of with a few clips from the movie "Elf" with Will Ferrell. I could do this entire countdown with clips just from that movie, but I'll do the first three instead. Here's the scene where the department store manager announces that Santa will be in the store the next day:

#2) Here is the "Angry Elf" scene:

#3) This is the scene where Buddy the Elf discovers the mall. My favorite part is in the beginning of this clip when he gets hit by a taxi:

#4) I just stumbled across this one. Even villains and horror movie monsters take a break from terrorizing and rampaging to celebrate the holidays:

#5) Next is one of my favorite clips from a clay animated Christmas special that came out years ago. I haven't seen them play it on TV in a long time, but here is the "Carol of the Bells" scene. Carol of the Bells is one of my favorite Christmas songs too:

#6) Here's a parody of Frosty the Snowman called "Snowy the Frostman". I found it on Aniboom's channel, and you can check out the rest of the series by clicking here:

#7) And now I will end this post with the Yule Log, enjoy. I will post more videos in the coming days:

Getting into the Christmas Spirit

2009-12-06T21:35:00.004-05:00

Getting into the Christmas spirit has taken on new meaning for me throughout the years. When I was little I would make a paper chain out of construction paper and number each one. I would hang it on a hook that was screwed into the ceiling and I would rip one paper chain link off each day to count down to Christmas. I would usually make my chain in September, so it was pretty long at first. And then I would get really excited when the paper chain would get short enough that it wasn't lying on the ground anymore. Christmas was coming soon! Toys! Games! Candy! Christmas Specials on TV! Christmas tree! Pretty Christmas lights!

As I've gotten older I've found it harder to get into what we call the Christmas Spirit. I can't find it in the same things that I did when I was a kid. Although I did sit down with my fiancée and her little four year old boy the other night to make a paper chain and it brought back memories. I think that's where it started for me this year. Then I went to my church for a service we call Carols and Candles. It was a great time for fellowship with friends and family and that got me even more in the mood for Christmas.

I'm still unemployed and that has really been bogging me down, I never thought I would get excited for Christmas this year. But I'm starting to. It's almost like the Whos in Whoville. They woke up on Christmas morning with nothing but each other and they were thankful for that. I need to be thankful for what I have rather than worry about what I don't have. What I have is a family that loves and cares for me. I have a great girl in my life who will soon be my wife and that's all I've every wanted. She has a little boy who looks up to me and I'm going to try to be a good father figure even though I'll never be his dad. Why should I be sad, I have everything I need to be joyful. I have a God who loves me and a savior named Jesus Christ who sacrificed everything for me and you and all of humanity.

There is a saying that goes "Jesus is the reason for the season". But what happens when someone hears that saying and all they know about Christmas is trying to get a good parking spot so they can go Christmas shopping and try to buy everyone the things they want?

Is Jesus the reason why we go into debt this time of year?

Is Jesus the reason why people get stressed during the holidays?

Is Jesus the reason why we get annoyed while trying to string up the lights on the house?

Is Jesus the reason why some people get trampled in the stores and killed just to get that one item that's on sale?

NO!

That's our own stupid fault. We've made Christmas into the monstrosity it has become.

Jesus is the reason for the season because he came to show us how to live. He showed us how to love our family, our friends, our neighbors, our enemies. He came to give of himself, not to have things given to him. He was a teacher, a servant, a savior. That's what the Christmas Spirit is all about. Jesus Christ is the embodiment of that. And it isn't something that should just come once a year, but all year long, continuously forever and ever.

Amen.

Christmas is Coming!

2009-12-01T22:49:00.006-05:00

It's the first week of December. Christmas is coming! Beware of junk like this little battery operated waste of space I found at a department store recently:

Buying gifts for your friends, family, and loved ones is great, don't get me wrong. But instead of buying them that sweater that they'll only wear when you come to visit or that exercise video their never going to use (not to mention how insulting that would be), try to do something a little more thoughtful this year. What my family is doing this year is getting a bunch of money together to help people in third world countries. We are doing this through an organization called Gospel for Asia Through this we will donate money so a family can receive farm animals for eggs, milk, and/or meat. As far as gifts for each other, we've decided to keep it simple and not spend much on each other because there are so many out there who need so much.

There are other organizations out there that are doing similar things. One of my favorites is Advent Conspiracy. Here are two videos, I'll put a link to the site below:

Click here to check out Advent Conspiracy.

Also, click here to see the post I wrote for charity:water

Blood:Water mission is also a great outreach started by members of the band Jars of Clay.

Also, be sure to check out how you can get involved in helping others in your local community as well.

So have a stress-free holiday and don't trample anyone to get your kid the one thing they really want. Believe me, they'll still love you if you don't.

And try not to get trampled.

Merry Christmas.

A trip to the Big  : Day Three

2009-11-30T11:34:00.010-05:00

So now that Thanksgiving is over I can finish up talking about the trip to New York City. We didn't go into the city until the afternoon. We ate lunch at the Hard Rock Café and saw a bunch of music memorabilia:

Billy Joel's motorcycle

Suits and backpacks worn by The Beatles

Paul McCartney's guitar

The original doors from Abbey Road Studios

This is where we sat, below Keith Moon's pants.
Oh, you're asking me what band he was in?
Yes.
Who.
Keith Moon, what band was he in?
Who.
That's what I want you to tell me. Who did Keith Moon play for?
Yes, he played for Who.
That's what I want to know!
Okay, I suck at this, watch this clip:

When I saw the pants of the Who's Keith Moon at the Hard Rock Café it reminded me of this clip from the Animaniacs.

We just walked around Times Square most of the day and checked out all the different shops. We looked at the Hershey's store and M&M World. I think I got a cavity just from walking around those places. We stopped into a bunch of other places and saw a few more familiar sights in the Times Square area:

Look at all those M&M's...I just drooled on myself.

There we are. It was so nice of that random guy who took our picture not to run off with my camera. Of course my mom offered to hold his camera while he took our picture. Good thinking, mom.

We ended the night by going to a comedy club. It was okay. I didn't see any comedians I recognized but most of them were pretty funny. It was a small crowd, there were maybe only ten people there so of course the comedians were a little more interactive with the crowd. Some of them got my mom and my sister pretty good but they left me alone for the most part. We called it a night after that and went back to the hotel.

The next morning we had to check out of the hotel and we were going to look around the local area where we were staying, there were some mini-malls in the area. But after we loaded up all of our luggage, souvenirs, and everything else we realized that the car had a flat tire. So we had to call around to see who could help. We had to put the donut on it and we took it to Sam's Club. My mom ended up getting four new tires since the others didn't look so good either. She got a pretty good deal. It was a pretty smooth ride home from there. Overall it was a pretty good trip, but I think I know what to expect the next time I go to New York.

Happy Thanksgiving

2009-11-26T12:24:00.006-05:00

I have another post to write about my NYC trip, but I'm taking a break today to wish everyone a happy Turkey Day! I thought I would type "Thanksgiving" into Google's image search and see what interesting and unny pictures would come up. So here's ten that I found:

We'll start off with some Norman Rockwell

Mom burnt the turkey again

Here's an updated version of Norman Rockwell's classic Thanksgiving painting

Now for some cartoons and funny pictures:

Then, of course, is the tradition of the president pardoning a turkey:

Who started this tradition anyway?

This last one is a classic:

And lastly, here are a couple of funny Thanksgiving videos:

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

A Trip to the Big  : Day Two

2009-11-23T09:05:00.012-05:00

I would have had this post up last night, but New York City kicked my butt yesterday and I was ready for bed by the time we got back. If you didn't read yesterday's post, click here. One thing I've learned about New York City is that whatever you plan on doing, make sure you know every little detail about doing what you want to do, especially when it comes to things like making reservations, national security, and timing. Timing is everything. You'll see what I'm talking about a little later in this post.

We had to get up early yesterday because the Christmas show at Radio City Music Hall started at 9am. The show was so much better than I had expected it to be. I thought it was just going to be a bunch of Rocketts kicking their legs in the air since that's all you ever see on TV. But yea, there was more to it, including a part where we had to put on 3D glasses. Here are some pictures from RCMH:

After the show we walked to Rockefeller Center. The tree was up, but it was covered by scaffolding so I couldn't get a good picture of it, but here are a few pictures from Rockefeller Center:

The tree is behind that giant poster.

We continued walking to St. Patrick's Cathedral. We went inside during their Sunday Mass, it was very interesting. The architecture of this building is beautiful:

After stopping for a little lunch we walked back to the Port Authority to ask how we could get to the Statue of Liberty. They told us we should take the subway rather than going by bus. They said it would take about three hours in traffic to get to the ferry. My mom and my sister weren't to thrilled about having to ride the subway, they had never done it before, but it was the best way to get there. It took us awhile to find out which subway train to get on, we asked a bunch of people and walked through a few underground tunnels and we finally found the train we were supposed to board. We went from 42nd and Times Square to South Ferry. While standing in line for the ferry we realized that security was pretty tight because of 9/11 of course. I had forgotten that I carry one of these in my coat pocket:

Oh, wait, I guess you can't really tell what that is. Here, let me take it out and show it to you:

It's a multi-purpose tool, but to national security, it's something that I might use to take over the world. So when we got to the part of the line where we had to put all of our belongings in the bins, that's when I remembered I had that in my coat pocket. They ran it through the x-ray machine and when it came out on the other side, they started looking through the pockets of the coat and I showed them where it was. They said they couldn't hold it for me, but if I went out and asked one of the hot dog or nut vendors outside to hold if for me and hand them a few bucks to do so, then I could get it back. So I did that. The guy I gave it to said he was done at 4:30 so we would have to be back by then. Then I had to go and walk through the metal detector again. The first time I went through before I had to take my multi-purpose tool to the nut vendor guy, the metal detector didn't go off, but when I came back in, it did. OH, GREAT!! So I was asked to take my shoes off and they ran them through the x-ray machine, just in case I would use my shoes to take over the world. After that fiasco, I put my shoes back on and we boarded the ferry. When we got to Liberty Island we found that not only could we not get into the statue, we couldn't even get into the monument below the statue. So what was the point of even paying to ride the ferry? So we walked around the Jolly Green Giant...I mean, the Statue of Liberty and snapped some pictures...HERE...ENJOY!:

Here's a shot of the backside of the Statue of Liberty which is an angle you probably don't see too often.

Ok, I'm finished with my rant, but if you learn anything from me, remember to make reservations and get tickets (they're free, you just have to pay for the ferry ride) for the Statue of Liberty, and don't carry any multi-purpose tools with you. Here's one more shot of the Statue of Liberty from the ferry ride back to the city:

So, that was yesterday. We traveled on foot, by bus, subway, and ferry, but mostly by foot. Today we're looking at going to Central Park and check out the zoo and the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art), and a few other things. Tonight we're planning on going to a comedy club, hope it's funny. I'll have another post up either tonight or tomorrow morning, it depends on how the city treats us tonight. Oh yea, and I did get my multi-purpose tool back from the nut vendor guy right at 4:30. I really didn't think I was going to get it back.

A Trip to the Big  : Day One

2009-11-21T23:27:00.011-05:00

So here I am in the Big . Well, actually, I'm in Secaucus, NJ because that's where our hotel is. See, here it is:

I'm here with my mom and my sister. We had a pretty good trip in, except for when we switched from looking at the Mapquest directions and starting using my sister's GPS. Somehow we ended up in some ghetto in New Jersey. We were sitting at a red light and the street sign said Dr. MLK Ave. which of course stands for Dr. Martin Luther King Ave. But my sister didn't know that at first. She said something like "Who's Dr. Milk?" and with my quick wit, I replied "He's the guy who started his famous speech with the phrase 'I have some cream'". Yes, I know, I'm hilarious.

We arrived at LaQuinta and our room is on the top floor. We were upgraded to a nice suite, it's sweet! Here are some pics of our room:

Our living room...

...another shot of the living room area...

...the bedroom and my sister relaxing before heading into the city...

...the bathroom...

...and the view from our room.

Then I had some fun with the mirrors on the closet door:

It was a long trip and I was a little tired, okay?!

After we checked in and rested up a little we hopped on the bus, went through the Lincoln Tunnel and went into the city. Our first stop was the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant for dinner:

I won a free t-shirt at there for answering a trivia question. The question was "What was the name of Forrest Gump's boat?" I was the first one to shout "Jenny!" After dinner we went to the huge 3-story Kids-R-Us to look at all the toys we're all too old to play with. They even have a Ferris wheel in there:

...and a Lego Statue of Liberty...

...and a T-Rex...

...and Steph made a new friend.

We walked around the city for a little while more before getting on back on the bus and here's some of the sights we saw:

Radio City Music Hall, which is where we're going tomorrow to see a show.

A fountain near Radio City Music Hall

My mom and Steph in front of the fountain, kind of blurry.

The New York Times building...

...and the rest of the New York Times Building.

So we went back to the bus station to ride back to the hotel, but as we tried boarding the bus driver said we needed a ticket and we couldn't pay cash, which is weird since we paid cash when we got on the bus earlier. We had to go get some bus tickets and then find another gate to catch another bus because the gate we originally went to closed after the bus we couldn't board left. It was a real hassle, but at least we know now.

When we arrived back to our hotel room, Steph decided to go downstairs to look around and because I was tired and delirious I decided to dress up her stuffed koala bear she brought to use as a pillow:

I used her gloves, scarf, vest, shoes, and a bag of pistachios. Then I put my sunglasses on it but that was after I took this picture.

And now it's time to go to bed, good night. I'll have more tomorrow.

Justice Has Been Served! So Why Don't I Feel Good?

2009-11-19T08:16:00.003-05:00

The other night I was on my way to my mom's house. She was throwing a Tastefully Simple party. She had invited my fiancée to the party and I was going there to watch her four year old son during the party. We played air hockey and pool in the basement.

So on the way to the party I was driving behind a state trooper and there was a car in front of him. The state trooper had turned off into a church parking lot so then I was behind the other car. We came to a stop sign and opposite us a school bus had stopped. Its lights started flashing and the little stop sign on the bus extended out. The person in front of me decided to go and pass the bus. I knew better so I stayed put. Next thing you know I see in my side view mirror another car come passing by me and I wondered why someone else was passing me to get by the bus, then I realized it was the state trooper when he turned his lights on.

I remember thinking to myself, "Yes, this is awesome! Justice is being served!" Seriously though, how many times have you been driving, seen someone else driving like an idiot and you think to yourself where the cops are when there is a great injustice being done?

So I arrived at the party and I said, "I just saw something awesome!" Then my mom said, "Is it about my friend who is on her way here and just got pulled over by a cop?" Oh crap. All of a sudden I felt bad about feeling good that someone just got pulled over. Sure, what she did was wrong, but why should it make me feel good? Why do we as humans point the finger and laugh when other people mess up and act like we're all perfect because we don't do stuff like that? Too many times we use others as a measuring stick so we can use excuses such as "At least I'm not like that person".

Fortunately, my mom's friend was let go with a warning when she probably could have lost her license. She couldn't tell it was a school bus at first because it was dark out and it was much later than the time school buses are usually dropping off students, it was around 6pm. And I'll be honest, I didn't know right away that it was a school bus at first either. If I had been in front, I may have gone. I've been pulled over for driving like an idiot too. Why should I point the finger? We often step on people to lift ourselves up and try to look better than everyone else by pointing out their faults. I know that sometimes I need to stop being so self-centered and stop using the misfortunes of others to build myself up. I am a broken and fallen person and I'm okay with that, just as long as I always get up and pull myself together after every break and fall.

Culture Clash

2009-11-13T14:18:00.009-05:00

I would like to share part of a story from another blogger known as Stacy From Louisville. It's been quite awhile since she's posted anything, but perhaps she's been called to do other things. So I'll set the stage for this small part of the story. On one of Stacy's blog posts she was talking about a guest speaker who had come to the college she was attending. He was a lifelong missionary who had been serving in a secluded area of Africa. Here's the rest:

When he and his wife first began their ministry in Africa a large portion of their financial support came from one particular church. He frequently sent that congregation letters to update them on how his work was progressing. On one occasion he sent several photos. The women of the church were horrified to see the women of that tribe were naked from the waist up. In response to the ungodly, offensive nature of the native women the church banded together to collect t-shirts for each one. The shirts were then sent to the missionary - as a surprise - for those impoverished women.

Several weeks later the missionary sent another letter to the church. In it he enclosed a photo. He relayed that the women were overjoyed with the colorful t-shirts. So much so, they CUT SPECIAL HOLES IN THEM SO THEY COULD WEAR THEM AND STILL FEED THEIR CHILDREN. The picture showed a large group of smiling African women wearing new t-shirts - with the front cut out.

I think I just about died laughing when I read that story. But this story also brings up a good question. Was it wrong for the African women to be naked from the waist up, or was it wrong for the women of the church to think it was wrong? Perhaps in that culture in that secluded area of Africa it is just the norm for women to walk around topless, no problem. Of course here in America if that happened it would cause car accidents, arrests, and just a lot of other problems. But that's our culture, not theirs.

What's wrong in one part of the world may not be wrong in another part of the world. That's kind of how I view the idea of sin. I think when most people hear the word "sin" they automatically think sin is always about bad things or things that are wrong. I think sin is more about what separates us from God rather than what's bad or wrong. What may be a sin to one person may not be a sin to another. In Romans 14 Paul uses food and drink as an example:

It's high time that you welcome all people weak in the faith without debating and disputing their opinions. Here's the issue: One person believes that nothing's off the menu; he'll eat any food put before him with no concern whether or not it has been associated with a pagan ceremony. But here's another believer-we'll call him the weaker-who eats only vegetables because the meat is tainted through contact with an idol. If you are an eater of all things, do not be condescending to your vegetarian brother or sister. In turn, those who abstain from certain foods on religious principles should not judge your brothers and sisters who eat meat-if God has accepted them, you have no reason to reject them.
vs. 1-3

In light of this, we must resolve never to judge others and never to place an obstacle or impediment in their path that could cause them to trip and fall. Personally I have been completely convinced that in Jesus, our Lord, no object in and of itself is unclean, but if my fellow believers are convinced that something is unclean, then it is unclean to them. If the food you eat harms your brother, then you have failed to love him. Do not let what you eat tear down your brother; after all, the Liberating King laid down his life for him. Do not allow people to slander something you find to be good because the kingdom of God is not about eating and drinking. When God reigns, the order of the day is redeeming justice, true peace, and joy made possible by the Holy Spirit. You see, those who serve the Liberating King in this way will be welcomed into the whole acceptance of God and valued by all men. Join us, and pursue a life that creates peace and builds up our brothers and sisters.
vs. 12-20

I think a good example would be something like this: Alcohol in and of itself is not unclean or bad or wrong. The abuse of alcohol is where the problem lies. So even though you may be a responsible drinker, it would not be wise to have even a sip of it if you are around someone who may be a recovering alcoholic. Here's one more thing from Romans 14:

It is right for you to abstain from certain meats and wine (or anything else for that matter) if it prevents your brother from falling in his faith. Hold on to what you believe about these issues, but keep them between you and God. A happy man does not judge himself by the lifestyle he endorses. But a man who decides for himself what to eat is condemned because he is not living by his faith. Any action not consistent with faith is sin.
vs. 21-23

The word sin is a term used in archery. The sin is basically the measurement between the bullseye and where the arrow lands on the target. If the arrow hits the bullseye, there is no sin. So another way to describe sin is to "miss the mark".

But back to cultural differences. I was reading an article in the July/August 2008 issue of Relevant magazine. The article is called "God Bless the Broken Road" by Christine Stanley. The article talks about how missionaries have been doing some good work in Nagaland, which is in north-eastern India. It's great that they've gone there and helped to change lives and share the life and teaching of Jesus with them, but something else happened as well. The Naga were introduced to Western culture.

Like I said, it's great that missionaries were going there to share Christ's love, but the influence of Western culture is erasing their identity. Here is a snippet from the article:

The Naga, an indigenous peopl of Indo-Mongoloid decent thought to have migrated to their current territory more than 500 years ago, have, in just three generations, undergone a rapid religious transformation that's inspired the majority of Nagaland's 2 million people to dedicate their lives to Chirst.
The conversion has proven positive on a number of social levels for these hill tribes, but change didn't come without severe and ultimately detrimental impacts to the very way Nagas understand themselves, their history and their future. In fact, their cultural transformation has been so marked that many Naga believe with certainty that in 10 or so years, the traditions of this culture will cease to exist.

Here are a few quotes from the article that came from some of the Naga people themselves:

The younger generation will lose our identity. We've totally forgotten the traditions of our culture.

We should keep our identity. I highly object to these changes. You see my tattoos? Any man should have these tattoos-they make you handsome. But now, my son thinks not. He has said no to them, and that is his choice.

The missionaries came and we jumped from one life to the next without the journey between, and that's dangerous. So now we have a Bible in our hands but no land or tradition, it pains me.

At first we could not differentiate between culture and faith. We thought that all things our forefathers used were evil-traditional song and dance, ethical values. All these things we disregarded with the introduction of Christianity, and many of these items were destroyed.

We don't just blame Christianity, but also modernity-[Western] lifestyle, dress, music. It was all coming together at the same time, and we could not differentiate, and that was the problem.

I wouldn't put the blame on Christianity as a whole. But there seems to be an American brand of Christianity here in the US and it's that kind of Christianity that so many times is presented to the people of foreign lands. I think the American brand of Christianity may be to blame for trying to convert the world to an American version of Christianity. I reject American Christianity and I embrace a world-wide Christianity. One that works with and through the cultures and traditions of people all over the world. Christianity doesn't look exactly the same all over the world.

So if you happen to go to a foreign land on a mission trip, learn about the culture of the people you are going to see. And it's not wrong to teach them about your own culture, it just shouldn't be forced on anyone. Well, that's all I've got for this one. Comments and other insights are always welcome. I want this blog to start conversations. I want to know what others think, I'm not always happy with just my thoughts and opinions. What are yours?

The Mouth Brow

2009-11-12T08:45:00.018-05:00

After finally finishing the Work, Work, Work Edition on this blog I feel it's time to do something pointless but fun. Sometimes I like to type random words into Google's image search and see what it comes up with. Even when I'm doing some serious research and I need to find images, some of the craziest things come up. So I thought I would type in the words "Handlebar Mustache" and see what I came up with. I have chosen the ten best images that have come up. Not all the images that came up were necessarily handlebar mustaches, but I picked them just for being awesome or ridiculous. So here we go:

We'll start of with this picture of Rollie Fingers. (is that his real name?)

Wow! To bad he doesn't have a beard, he'd definitely quality for having one of the best gingerbeards.

How could the ladies resist? Well...pretty easily I'm sure.

Can't forget about the Hulkster? What'cha gonna do, brother?!

You should see how he hog ties a baby calf!

I think he stole those from a ram and glued them to his face.

I think he just swallowed an elf. The poor thing's feet are still hanging out of his mouth.

This guy is like the Pippi Longstockings of mustaches.

More like a crowbar mustache! And check out the sweater that guy is wearing under his coat.

I don't know if this counts, but that is one smug looking emperor tamarin.

So those were my top ten choices, but I don't want to end this post without a tribute to the mustache Salvador Dali.

So there you have it. And just one more thing. The video below just goes to show that having a mustache isn't always all fun and games. Sometimes mustaches make life hard.

THE END

WWWE: Time to get Graphic

2009-11-09T21:34:00.002-05:00

So this will be my last entry in the Work, Work, Work Edition of my blog. Gee, I've been working on it since June or July, I can't remember how long ago it was. We have come to the last job I've had up to this point. After graduating from Penn College in 2007 I finally broke into the world of graphic design in October 2007 at a place called Brodart. My main job was to work on the catalog during the summer and then other things throughout the rest of the year such as trade show signage, brochures, flyers, logos, labels, and a bunch of other stuff. It really wasn't the most creative job, it was a lot of production work, but it was good experience.

There's not really much to say about this job to be honest with you, I didn't really like it all that much. I got along great with my co-workers though. The one thing we could always talk about was the show "LOST". I also got to listen to music and podcasts until my boss said we couldn't listen to anything anymore because none of the other departments are allowed to listen to music. So that really sucked when that happened. I listened to about 20 different podcasts every week and it was the only thing that really helped me get through my day, and then it was gone.

My boss and I didn't have a very good working relationship. She never approached me about anything, never gave me anything to do. I would ask her and she would say, "I'll find something for you to do", so I would go back to my desk and wait for something, but I was never given anything to do. And when I would get a project to work on I would get it done quickly and then have nothing to do again. I would be busy during catalog season, but after that, nothing. My boss seemed to avoid me like the plague, she would make small talk with my other co-workers and tell them they were doing a good job, but I would never hear anything like that. The only time she ever said anything to me was if I messed up and then I'd get an earful.

One time she called me into her office and she chewed me out about something and then asked if I had anything to say. I told her that the only thing I ever hear from her is negativity and that she never tells me when I do a good job. I though I would have atleast heard some positive feedback when the marketing team chose my designs out of everyone else's three times in a row. Nope, nothing. Then she told me she would work on that.

I started working on a logo shortly after that. I must have made well over a hundred different designs on that logo. She never asked to see them. I put them in her mailbox but I never got any feedback on them. She just went back to avoiding me like the plague again. But then she called me into her office again a couple weeks after I had told her about her negative attitude. I was let go. I guess that's what you get for telling the truth.

I was never rude or nasty to her, but she wasn't not a nice person at all. I'm sorry I'm talking about someone this way, I know it's not right, I know she probably has issues and maybe I should be praying for her instead of venting all of this on this blog. But I will say she's not the worst boss I ever had. Atleast she never called me on the phone and yelled at me while I was lying on a hospital bed.

Sorry to end this series of posts on such a downer, but it was one of the worst jobs I've ever had and it's mostly because of the boss I had at that job. I didn't exactly like the work all that much, but I didn't really mind it either. I guess I could share one story that's pretty funny though.

I got an e-mail from one of the IT guys, it was an e-mail that went to all the employees. I can't remember exactly what it said, but it went something along the lines of: "The system is going to be down for a few hours today, sorry for the incontinence." If you don't know what incontinence means, then click on it. I usually ate lunch with that particular IT worker so I printed out the definition to incontinence and showed it to him. By lunch time he knew he used the wrong word, but he didn't know what it meant until I showed him. He thought it was funny, h's the kind of guy that can laugh at himself.

Well, I'm glad I'm done with this series of blogs. Now I feel I can get back to just blogging about whatever comes to mind. Some of my favorite blogs are just random ramblings of other people.

I am still unemployed and I have been since July. Please keep me in your prayers. Thank you.

Blogity-blah-blah-update

2009-11-09T14:20:00.004-05:00

I've got a quick update for everyone. I proposed to April this past Friday and she said yes! Of course I was pretty sure she would considering we had already started making wedding plans. So here's how it went down. Weeks before I proposed to her I asked her if she wanted to be proposed to in a traditional way or more of a unique way. She said she wanted to be surprised, which of course meant she wanted me to be clever.

That's the answer I wanted to hear. It was time for the gears to start turning in my head. April had gone online and showed me the different rings that she liked so I had a good idea of what to get her. But being unemployed, I wasn't sure how I was going to afford one. I eventually figured I would just have to put it on my credit card, so I did. But in the meantime I kept April thinking that I had no idea how I was going to get her a ring anytime soon.

As far as how to present her the ring in a creative way, I had to come up with something clever. For some reason the movie "The Ring" popped into my head. I thought I would just put the engagement ring in the DVD case, but it needed more. I pulled the movie off my shelf and noticed that there's a little tag-line that goes along with the title of the movie. It doesn't just say "The Ring" It says, in small print "Before you die you see..." and then in large print "The Ring". Well, that was a little unsettling, I thought to myself "Eh, maybe she won't see it", but what if she did, it would be kind of creepy. It is a horror movie after all. But it has the perfect title, "The Ring".

So after thinking about it, I decided to write the words "say yes" on a piece of paper and tape it on the DVD cover over the word "die". So then it would say "Before you say yes, you see the ring". To make sure the engagement ring would stay in place inside the DVD box, I used double-sided tape and pressed the ring down onto it so

I made reservations at the restaurant where we had our first date, the Bullfrog Brewery in Williamsport, PA. After we had finished eating I told April I had to run out to the car for a minute. I came back with the DVD box wrapped in wrapping paper. I pulled it out of my coat and said "I got you a little present". She said "What is it, it looks like a movie. She opened it and said "It is a movie". She was a little confused because she's not a big movie watcher and The Ring is probably not a movie she would own. But then she noticed the tag-line that read "Before you say yes, you see the ring". I think it confused her even more, but I think she was getting the idea. She looked at me as if she were expecting me to pull a ring out of my pocket and propose to her. But I just stared back with a smile on my face. Then she finally opened the DVD box and saw the ring. I got down on one knee and asked her to marry me.

The ring was even a perfect fit, I didn't even have it sized or anything. When I told her where I got the ring, she told me it was a good place and the owner of the store volunteers for hospice, and April is a hospice nurse. I had no idea! It was such a perfect evening and a memory we'll be able to hold on to forever

WWWE: Hotel, Motel, Holiday Inn

2009-11-04T10:55:00.007-05:00

So after my six years at Hope Enterprises was over I became a banquet server at the Holiday Inn in Williamsport, PA. Not only did I have to serve at wedding receptions and other types of banquets, I also had to set up all the tables and chairs in the banquet rooms. I hated it. Fortunately, the evening bellman was leaving soon so I got the position after he left. I loved it! I would definitely have to say this was one of my favorite jobs. You meet a lot of interesting people while working in a hotel. I got to meet some celebrities as well. Every year we would get some former baseball players and coaches who have been inducted into Major Leagues Baseball's Hall of Fame for a golf tournament just before the Little League World Series started every August. I met the Goo Goo Dolls, The Blue Oyster Cult (you know, the "more cowbell" band), and a comedian named Eric O'Shea. After Eric was finished with his act he asked me to drive him to a Chinese restaurant and we had a good conversation.

I had a variety of things to do as a bellman. My main duties were walking the hallways and making sure everything was tidy, picking up guests and flight crews at the airport, taking amenities to guests rooms when the asked for them: toothbrushes, pillows, refridgerators, etc. and picking on the front desk staff. Ok, that last one wasn't one of my duties, but I made it a part of my job. I also had to help out different departments in the hotel. I helped housekeeping fold towels, keep the pool stocked with towels, and once in awhile I had to change a room...not fun. I helped in the banquet department by taking a bottle of champagne in a bucket of ice to the bride and groom's room during the reception, plus I helped with the banquets once in awhile since I started as a server. I helped the restaurant by keeping the coffee urns filled at the front lobby of the hotel and running to the grocery store for food and other items they needed. I helped the front desk staff by checking guests in and answering the phone. It was a pretty busy job but I enjoyed it.

One of the worst parts of the job though was when a bus full of tourists came and I had to unload the entire bus and make sure all the luggage got to the right rooms. I usually had to take up to 15 or more luggage carts fully loaded and take all the luggage to the rooms. On my last night working at the hotel before I started my new job I was stacking some luggage on a cart when one of the bags came down on my hand. I pulled my hand out and it hurt. The steel casing that holds the retractable handle on a piece of luggage had crushed my hand. I went to the front desk and told them that someone else was going to have to finish unloading the luggage. When they asked me why I showed them my hand, it had swollen and my thumb was twitching uncontrollably. Nothing was broken fortunately, I just put some ice on it for awhile and then I was able to finish unloading the luggage a little while later.

So that's what I did at the Holiday Inn. But this blog post wouldn't be complete without me sharing some stories about my adventures as a bellman. Believe me, if you need to find some interesting stories to tell, work at a hotel for awhile.

Like I mentioned before, I used to pick up flight crews at the airport every night. Most flight crews consisted of two pilots and one flight attendant. I guess you could say I picked up a lot of flight attendants, ha ha.....yea, that's not funny, sorry. Anyway, one Halloween night I picked up a flight crew and one of them was wearing a hockey mask like Jason Voorhees.

When I saw him I said to him, "I'm so glad you finally found a respectable line of work instead of going around and killing people." He just kind of stared at me for a moment, it was kind of creepy.

Another time we had some guests staying with us from Texas. They were doing some construction job in the area. One of them came up to me with a piece of paper in his hand and said "Can you take us here?" I looked at the paper and it was an advertisement for the local strip club. I told him I was sorry that I couldn't because it was against our policy to take people to bars or anything of that nature. The guy didn't give me a hard time or anything he was just upset I couldn't take him and his friends there. Later that evening I was walking the hallways making sure everything was in order when I was paged on my walkie-talkie. The manager on duty said, "Could you please come and get the naked man out of the pool." My reply was, "Ummm.....". Then one of the front desk people said, "Don't worry, she'll have some people help you" which was good because I didn't really want to do this on my own. So about four of us were walking towards the pool when the man came out of the pool room. It was one of the Texans. He was wearing nothing except for his cowboy hat which he was using to cover himself. He apologized and went to his room.

I had to make an audio clip for this next one:

Okay, last story, it's a good one. It was late at night and the restaurant staff had all gone home for the night so the kitchen was empty. I went back there to use the service elevator so I could patrol the hallways. There was a man walking around in the kitchen. It was obvious that he was extremely inebriated. He was carrying around the plunger that we keep in the service elevator. I approached him and asked if I could help him. He said he was trying to find his room. I asked him what his room number was and he told me. So I got him back on the elevator and there were a few unused cigarettes on the floor of the elevator. He had tried to take one out to light it but was way too uncoordinated at the time to do so. As we got off the elevator he was still carrying the plunger and I asked him if he needed it for anything. He told me he didn't so I asked him to give it to me and I put it back on the elevator. I took him to the room he told me he was staying in and he tried using his key card on the door but it didn't work. I had a master key card that opened any hotel room and I was about to use it when I realized that maybe the room he told me wasn't his. So I used my walkie-talkie to page the front desk staff to ask what room this man was staying in. I asked the man his name and I'm glad he was aware enough to remember his own name. The front desk staff looked him up and told me his room was on the next floor. So he had the last two numbers right, he just had the floor number wrong. I walked him up to his room and told him to get a good night's rest.

So those were just some of the things I got to experience while working in a hotel. A lot of randomness and unpredictability. It was a fun job and I was sad to go, but I was about to start my career in graphic design. So I'll talk about that next time.

Calls From Chris: Part Two

2009-11-03T09:31:00.004-05:00

WOW! It's been a whole month since I've blogged anything. Remember when I could barely go a day without blogging? Life has been pretty hectic lately, still trying to find a job, planning a bachelor party for my friend, helping to plan my own wedding...oh, that's right, I didn't tell you guys, I'm planning on getting married in May 2010. Even though we've talked about it and started to plan things, I still haven't popped the question. You see, being unemployed really puts a damper on buying things like an engagement ring. Then again, that whole two months salary thing isn't looking so bad, ha ha! Yea, ok, that wasn't funny. So with being unemployed, what kind of ring can I get with no money. An onion ring? One of those rings that comes on a gallon of milk? I don't think that will go over so well. I know something will happen though, as long as the engagement ring comes before the wedding.

So anyway, that's the news right now. Before I conclude the Work, Work, Work Edition of my blog by talking about my last few jobs I wanted to post another installment of "Calls From Chris" So without further ado, I bring to you, Calls From Chris: Part Two: Electric Boogaloo...okay, there's no electric boogaloo.

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part VI

2009-10-09T14:01:00.003-04:00

Sorry it's taken me so long to get through this but this will be the final installation of Six Years of Hope. We last left off where I was asked to work at another house temporarily with a very aggressive individual because I would rather deal with that than deal with the manager of the house I was currently working in.

There were four things this particular individual would obsess over. They are hats, balls, paper, and bags. If he saw any of these items he had to have them and would mow over anyone to get them. So we couldn't really take him out in public unless we went to a park and prayed to God nobody at the park had any of those four items. He had to take him out because we couldn't keep him cooped-up in the house all day. I remember I came into work one morning and he was sitting very calmly in a recliner holding two brooms, one in each hand. The staff that worked overnight told us "We think he's trying to row a boat." I just said "Okay". Then there were times when he'd get very aggressive towards the staff or his housemates and he would have to be wrestled to the ground until he calmed down. He's not a bad guy by any means, he doesn't know any better when he does these things, it's just how he's been wired I guess.

The time eventually came when they found a new place for him to live. He now has his own space in the bottom floor of a house and staff work with him one-on-one and I've heard that it's a much better situation now. I think he is a very territorial person and that's why he would often terrorize his housemates. So with him gone, that meant it was time for me to go back to the other house I was working at. But I didn't want to go back. It was then that I made a very bold move. I talked to the director who ran both the houses and told her flat out that I wanted to stay at the house I was currently at and if I am made to go back to the other house I would quit. Guess what, it actually worked!

So after this agressive individual moved out, another moved in, so there were a total of three residents in this house. I'll talk briefly about each one of them.

We'll call the first one Rich. Rich likes to shake his head back and forth (kind of like he's saying "no") so he has a really large neck from doing this. We're not sure why he does this, but the manager of the house said he gets a head rush from doing it. Personally I can't stand it when I get a head rush because it hurts, but apparently this guy liked it. He is also deaf and he has a device placed under his mattress on his bet that vibrates when the fire alarm goes off. One night I stayed to cover third shift. We were able to sleep during third shift so that was a good thing. But this particular night the assistant manager came it and pulled the fire alarm for a fire drill. I guess we were due for a third shift fire drill, I just wished she wouldn't have picked the night that I was doing third shift. So I got two of the residents out the door, but when I got Rich up, he decided that he was going to go into the kitchen and get himself a glass of milk. So that fire drill didn't go so well. He could be kind of sneaky sometimes and try to sneak drinks and food. His parents took him home over the weekend every week so he is well taken care of. Plus it was nice to have one less person at the house on the weekends.

The next person we'll call Dave. Dave was the new guy that came after the aggressive guy left. He is a very quiet person and has dementia. It could be difficult to get him to do things or interact with staff or his other housemates. He didn't do to well on outings either. We tried horse therapy with him, but he would never get on the horse, but he would help walk it around the track. Most of the time he would stand in the hallway. We'd ask him if he wanted to sit down but he would usually say "No". The only two things that he did well was eat and sleep. He loved ice cream and he didn't talk much, but the word he said most was "pajamas" meaning he wanted to put on his pajamas and go to bed. We tried in so many ways to try to reach him, but there are some people that just can't be reached. Perhaps they have found a way since I've left, but we tried everything.

Then the third resident we'll call Gary. Gary was retired from the day program that Rich and Dave went to every weekday. I would often work with him in the mornings. I would take him to the park to see the ducks and the geese and we'd often times go for rides in the vans. He liked it when we took the back roads so he could see the cows. He liked to say "MOO!" when we saw the cows. He went to a senior center on Fridays for lunch, but he usually didn't like it. He used to when I first started working there, but then he didn't seem to like it as much after awhile. He loved to watch stand-up comedy. I don't know if he understood what the comedians were saying but he laughed anytime the crowd laughed. His favorite comedian was Larry the Cable Guy. He also loved to watch America's Funniest Home Videos. He was always a real joy to work with even though he did have his "moments" once in awhile. He could be really grumpy sometimes.

My career at Hope Enterprises ended at that house. One day while I was at school one of my classmates looked at me and said "You don't look so good." I told her "I don't feel so good." I told my professor that I wasn't feeling well and I left. I made an appointment with my doctor and met with her a few hours later. After checking me over she found three different things wrong with me, two of them related to stress. She asked me where I worked and she suggested I find a new job. The average employee lasts about three years at Hope unless they move up in the ranks. I had been there for over six years by this time. In the meantime I was able to cut my hours back and it really helped reduce the stress I was going through. I had enough sick time and vacation hours to make up for the hours I was missing.

I went back to my doctor a few weeks later and she decided to run an EKG on me. She didn't like the results. She said that I may be heading for a heart attack and she referred me to a specialist about getting a pacemaker. A PACEMAKER? AT THE AGE OF 27? ARE YOU KIDDING ME? So I went to see this specialist and he gave me a clean bill of health. He said that it was normal for someone who was in my position for my heart to be in the condition it was. I was working a full time job and going to college. He did say that I have an abnormal heart beat and said it wouldn't effect me until I was much older.

A few weeks after all this happened I was able to find another job and my time was done at Hope. I had a lot of good times and a lot of bad times and I was glad I was finished there. And I'm glad I'm done blogging about this job.

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part V

2009-09-23T10:11:00.002-04:00

So once again I was transferred to a different house. This house had four residents crammed into one little tiny house which was probably only big enough for two people to live in. This was also the first house in which only one staff member was there during a shift so it was different being the only one looking after four people rather than two or three staff. Of course there would be additional staff to do outings, but for the most part it was just one staff per shift. I guess they never heard of the buddy system. Seriously, what would happen if that one staff that's working gets hurt and is rendered unconscious? They probably would have more staff on, but they are only given so much money by the state so I guess they have to do what they have to do.

The residents at this house were pretty calm. None of them really had any behavioral issues. I think the worst thing was one of them liked to try to raid the fridge or cupboards to try and sneak some food. I talk a little bit about each of the residents.

The one that liked to sneak food, we'll call him Rob. Rob is a pretty friendly guy. He enjoys watching the news and he would occasionally go to the mall where the local news station had a news room. His favorite news anchor reported from that room. He also likes listening to his Johnny Cash CDs. He would usually visit his mother on the weekends.

The next guy who we'll call Mark was the oldest living resident at Hope at the time. He was a good guy, but he could be a little grumpy sometimes. I had never seen him do this, but one of my co-workers there told me he was known to flip the bird at traffic lights when they turned red. He spent most of his time watching TV and looking at books and magazines.

The third guy we'll call Rick. He didn't actually have mental retardation or mental health issues so I'm not quite sure how he ended up at Hope. He was the nicest person though. He liked to tell jokes and have conversations with staff. It was kind of hard to understand him, he talked very low most of the time and he stuttered a lot. He had just had a stroke before I worked there and before that I was told that he spoke very clearly. He also enjoyed watching TV, reading the paper, and doing puzzles.

The last one we'll call Don. He was very short and wore big glasses. He kind of reminded me of that turtle from the old Bugs Bunny cartoons. He likes to tell stories and joke around. Don actually wasn't at the house much. His dad took him home on the weekends and on Wednesday nights. He needed insulin shots every day. I had never given shots before so I was nervous about giving them. I took a training and practiced on a ball with the syringe and needle. The day came for me to give my first shot to Don. He gave me a little pep talk and said "C'mon Dan, you can do it!" I was nervous, but he wasn't, he had gotten these shots twice a day for a long, long time so he was used to it.

All the residents in this house were great. I was in my busiest semester at college, so things were pretty rough and stressful, and on top of that, the manager of the house I was working in was the absolute worst boss I have ever had in my life. Believe me, putting the words "absolute worst" in italics doesn't do it any justice. Now, I don't like to say bad things about people, so I won't. But if you happen to be a manager, or a boss of any kind, here are some tips to follow:

1) When one of your employees messes up and you're giving them a lecture about it don't ever use the phrase "That's a no-no." It's very condescending and will most likely piss off the employee.

2) If you need to call off and need one of your staff to fill in for you, don't whine and complain when they can't make it in especially if you have denied them time off when they were sick and treated them like crap.

3) If one of your staff calls because they just got backed into by a semi-truck while they were sitting in their car, one of the first things you should say are "Are you okay?" or "I'm sorry to hear that, do you need someone to take your shift?" You're first question should never be "Well, when can you come in?" in a very stern and uncaring voice.

4) The most important thing you need to remember is that if one of your employees has to be taken to the hospital because he/she passed out and a relative calls in to tell you they won't be in that day do not, I repeat DO NOT CALL THE HOSPITAL LATER AFTER YOUR EMPLOYEE HAS REGAINED CONSCIOUSNESS AND YELL AT THEM FOR MISSING WORK WHILE THEY ARE LYING IN A HOSPITAL BED!!!

Follow these simple tips and you can avoid becoming the worst boss in the universe.

So yea, it was not a happy time there. After working there for a few months I was asked to substitute at another group home. They were trying to gather up all the male staff they could to work at this group home because they had just gotten a new resident that was very physically aggressive especially toward female staff. I had worked with him before when I subbed at another house a few times. So I jumped at the chance to work at that other house for awhile. Because I would rather work at a house with a resident who might try to rip my face off than work with the manager at the house I was currently at. Says a lot about a person doesn't it?

Yes, I know I'm supposed to show grace and forgiveness to everyone, but there are just some people that get under my skin and she happened to be one of them. Sorry, I'm not Jesus, I'm not perfect.

But anyway, that's the worst of my time there at Hope. I'll have one more for you next time, and then I have two more jobs to tell you about after that and we'll be done with the Work, Work, Work Edition (WWWE) here at Blogity-blah-blah-blog.

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part IV

2009-09-21T14:13:00.004-04:00

Let's see...last time I talked about the house I was transferred to and I talked about all but one of the residents that live there. Today I'd like to talk about the sixth resident at that house, his name is Chris. Chris is one of the most unique people I've ever met. He's autistic and one of his hobbies is to collect DVDs and VHS tapes. Let's just say he has a lot of them. He remembers just about everything you tell him about yourself or about others. Don't ever tell secrets around him though, it won't stay a secret for too long :)

Chris is able to go out into the community on his own, he just let's his staff know where he's going and when he'll be back. He's very independent. I still keep in touch with Chris to this day. He enjoys coming to Valley Mosaic with me once in awhile. I usually go to his birthday party every year as well. And there's always one thing he wants for Christmas and his birthday, a DVD. He has so many he could open his own video rental store. Almost every time I talk to him on the phone, one of the first statements out of his mouth is "I'm watching a movie".

I'm going to do something new here at Blogity-blah-blah-blog. I have recorded a bunch of messages left by Chris on my answering machine and I have compiled them together in groups of five messages. I thought I would share these with everyone. I've edited them though so all revealing information has been left out such as his last name, phone number, address, etc. so it doesn't interfere with any confidentiality. There will be more where this came from, but I now present to you, Calls from Chris: Part One.

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part III

2009-09-18T09:52:00.004-04:00

So my time came to an end at the first group home I worked at. I was transferred to another home which housed six residents, three men and three women. The residents at this house are able to do many things on their own unlike the first house I worked in. Most of them could talk and carry on a conversation pretty well. Two of the men are deaf but could communicate through sign language and they even had a deaf staff member who could communicate well with them. They could all feed themselves and they all had their own hobbies and activities they liked to do.

One of the women liked to hang around the staff most of the time and talk to them. She had a good sense of humor and would sarcastically call some of the female staff "Miss America". Actually all the staff were female except for me.

One of the deaf guys that lived there liked to try and sneak food out of the refrigerator when no one was looking. He was also on a community outing plan that allowed him to go to the local bar for one drink of beer every payday. So every time he got his check he would yell "BEER!" Of course he got outside more than just once every two weeks. It's just that the state requires we do "plans" for the residents.

Another one of the women is very high functioning and probably had more mental health issues rather than mental retardation. She kind of reminded me of Lisa Simpson, she had the same laugh as her. She is one of the more independent residents and has a job outside of Hope Enterprises. Many of the residents at Hope work at Hope's warehouse doing multiple jobs for different companies which keep their skills in practice. The residents that are unable to work or even perform simple tasks attend a day program which is a lot like day care. I mentioned it a couple posts ago I think.

The other deaf resident liked to spend his free time playing Donkey Kong Country on his Super Nintendo. He liked to watch video tapes too. One time he brought me one that wasn't working right. Part of the tape had been damaged. So I took it apart and fixed it for him. That was a big mistake because after that he handed me a bunch of other tapes. Another thing he enjoyed doing was mimicking gestures and facial expressions he would see in movies. He kind of reminded me of a silent movie actor like Charlie Chaplin or something like that.

The third woman who lived there moved in just a few days after I started working at the house. She has a lot of energy. We'd play soccer in the backyard and she would wear me out. One time she wanted to go rollerskating at the YMCA. She was a big girl and I thought it was a bad idea, but she really wanted to go. I was a little nervous about it because I though she was going to end up in the ER or perhaps I would end up in the ER. But she did pretty good. She fell once but she was okay. She's actually lost a lot of weight since then and last time I heard, she was engaged to marry another resident at Hope.

I have one more resident to talk about but I'll save that for next time. I wish I had more stories about the other residents but I was only at the house for about a month and then they decided they wanted to transfer me again. The other staff were apparently uncomfortable with having me, a male staff there. It's unfortunate that there is a lot of sexism in the work place. There are a lot of women who have to put up with it in a workplace that has mostly male employees. I had to put up with it in a place that had mostly female employees. I was at the other end of the spectrum in a sense. But all this transferring to different houses started making me feel unwanted. So I'll talk about the sixth resident in my next post and then the post after that will include the absolute worst boss ever. See you next time!

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part II

2009-09-15T13:25:00.003-04:00

I'll just pick up where I left off last time. I had been talking about one of the group homes I worked in. I worked in four homes altogether throughout my six years at Hope Enterprises, but I spent the first three years working at the house I've been talking about.

Each of the guys I took care of all attended a day program where they did different activities throughout the day to keep them busy so they weren't just sitting at home all the time. We would regularly have outings in the evenings as well. We'd take them to things like softball games, restaurants, Dairy Queen, the park, and other places like that.

Sometimes we would get nasty looks from people when we took the guys out. Unfortunately, older generations were told when they were young that if they had a child with mental retardation that they should just lock them up in the attic or basement because they have no feelings and feel no pain. This is so far from the truth and it's unfortunate that people actually believed these things. I know from experience that individuals with mental retardation do feel pain, and they do have feelings. In fact I think that they understand more about love than any of us so-called "normal" people could ever know.

On the other hand, many times when we took the guys out for dinner people would come up to us who were working and tell us how much they appreciate what we do. I always heard people tell me that it takes a special kind of person to do that job and that they could never do anything like that. I just tell them, give it a try, there's really nothing special about me that allows me to do this job, you just kind of do it.

Near the end of my first three years at Hope some bad things happened. One Sunday morning I got a call. It was my manager, he told me that John* passed away in his sleep. I was scheduled to work that day, I knew it was going to be hard. When I went in to work my other co-workers were sitting at the kitchen table talking about John and remembering him. Some of the girls I worked with taught him how do dance and sing "Shake Your Booty". His favorite song that he liked to sing was "You Are My Sunshine". I still think of him every time I hear that song.

Not even two weeks later a new resident moved in. I wished they would have let more time pass, we weren't ready for someone to move into John's old room. Then not too long after that our manager was fired. When the new manager came she decided that she needed new staff so those of us who had been working there together for the past three years and had formed a solid team and were like family were scattered and transferred to work in different group homes. We were all happy where we were and that was all over.

Sorry to end this one on such a downer, but it was one of the hardest times of my life. It really was like a family separating. I held a grudge and felt very bitter and angry at the new manager for a long time. Then as if things weren't bad enough she started coming to my church a few years later. It was awkward. We would say hi to each other and talk a little bit, but never brought up what happened years earlier. Then one day after church she pulled me aside and said she had to talk to me in private. She poured her heart out apologizing to me for what happened a few years ago. She said she was a different person then and a day hasn't gone by where she hasn't regretted what she did. I forgave her, but I also had to ask for her forgiveness. I didn't like it when she came and changed everything at work. I thought of her as a tyrant and a dictator. So I asked for her forgiveness and she forgave me as well.

There will be more to this story later. I will talk about the other group homes I've worked in.

*Just a reminder, I didn't use the real names of the people I've been talking about.

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part I

2009-09-11T11:00:00.006-04:00

Things have been pretty busy lately. I'm still looking for new job but I have been doing a sales job on the side for a little extra money while collecting unemployment. This week has been busy because we are at a county fair all day everyday this week. I'm not feeling to well today so I decided to take the day off. So now that I have some time, I think it's time I got back into something I've been putting off for a few weeks now. I'm getting back into the WWWE or Work, Work, Work, Edition of this blog. I had started it awhile back when I still had themes for each day of the week. The WWWE was part of Story Time Tuesday on my blog. So I last left off when I was working at Blockbuster Video. So now I will talk about a place I worked at called Hope Enterprises.

Hope Enterprises is an organization that employs people to take care of individuals who are mentally and/or physically challenged. I worked in four different group homes over the course of six years. I'll talk about the first house I worked in. I worked at that house for three years. I took care of four different individuals at that house. I have to be careful about what I say due to confidentiality so I won't give out any names or locations. This particular job is going to take awhile to talk about, so I'll have to span it out over multiple days. So today I thought I would tell a story or two about each of the four individuals I took care of.

The first guy, we'll call him Bill, even though that's not his real name, has profound mental retardation, autism, he couldn't talk, and he was prone to have seizures. He also has pica which is a disorder in which the individual likes to eat things other than what's normally edible. There was an episode of Ripley's Believe it or Not in which there was a story about a woman who had pica and she liked to eat dirt. Bill seemed to like cloth. He would chew on his shirt all the time. He also had bibs he would wear around his neck and he'd chew on those too. We had to keep a close eye on him obviously. He liked to wander into the kitchen a lot and try to grab things to put in his mouth. I wasn't at work on the day this particular incident happened but it's pretty funny. Two of my co-workers were occupied with two of the other residents so they couldn't keep an eye on Bill. When my co-workers were finished with what they were doing they came back into the living room and saw Bill with what looked like chocolate all over his hands and mouth. There was a trail of this chocolate leading from Bill sitting on the couch, all the way into the kitchen to the tray of uncooked brownie batter. Bill had walked into the kitchen and grabbed two handfuls of brownie batter and trailed it back to the kitchen. I thought it was hilarious when they told me about it even though they didn't find it too funny, they had to clean up the mess.

We'll call the second guy Kevin. I know you're not supposed to pick favorites, but Kevin was my favorite. He always had a smile on his face and he would always laugh. He also had profound mental retardation and he was non-verbal. For the most part he remained stationary in his recliner and didn't move around too much. Of course we did physical therapy with him and had him walk out to the dinner table and take him out to Dairy Queen and other places, but for the most part he didn't walk around on his own free will. But every once in awhile he would get out of his chair and he would either walk around the house or roll around on the floor. It wasn't always a good thing because he would do this for days and even throughout the night non-stop. You could see that he was tired, but something in his mind made him keep on going. They said he was being manic when he did this. When he was manic like this it was the only time he wouldn't smile or laugh. Kevin had the ability to brighten anyone's day though. Everyone he came in contact with was always happy to see him. On days when he wasn't smiling or laughing and just sitting in his recliner I would always try to find ways to make him laugh and I didn't stop until he did.

The third guy who we'll call Steve also had profound mental retardation, multiple sclerosis, and obsessive compulsive disorder. He was also non-verbal but he was smart enough to understand what people told him and he could do simple tasks when asked. Actually he was much smarter than he allowed people to think he was. He may not have been able to take care of himself, but Steve was very intelligent in other things, like playing jokes on people. Due to his OCD he would constantly rearrange things in the living room to the way he liked it. No pillows could be on the floor, in fact, nothing could be on the floor except for furniture. He also liked to unplug things, lamps, the TV, etc. This became a real problem sometimes, but he didn't do it too often. I took him to the grocery store one time and he ended up wetting his pants while we were there. Fortunately one of the employees of the store was very cooperative and he said he had a lot of respect for what I did for a living. So Steve did #1 in aisle two which is much better than #2 in aisle one. I mentioned earlier that he like to play jokes on people. One time I made myself a sandwich on a bun and set it on the end table in the living room and then I went back into the kitchen to get something. When I came back the top part of my bun was gone. Steve was sitting on the other side of the room laughing and I could see that his tongue was yellow from the mustard that was on my sandwich. The funniest thing he did I can laugh at now, but at the time I wasn't laughing. I was getting ready to go home one night, but I couldn't find my car keys. I looked all over the house for them. When I was searching Steve's room he started laughing. I had a feeling he knew what was going on, but since he couldn't talk he couldn't tell me, not that he would if he could. I was convinced that I had lost them so I called for a ride home. The next day at work one of my co-workers came up to me and said "Are these your keys?" She had my keys and I asked her where she found them. "They were in my purse, and I have a good idea how they got there." Yes, it was Steve. He put them in her purse the day before and her shift was over before mine was, so she ended up going home with my keys in her purse, not knowing it at the time. Good old Steve.

The last guy we will call John. John was higher functioning than his three other housemates. He had severe mental retardation, autism, and OCD. He was also a very big guy weighing in at 32o pounds. He pretty much had his own space in the basement with his own bathroom and a living room with a TV, but he liked to be upstairs with everyone else most of the time. He was very pleasant but he had a habit of bopping his housemates over the head with a closed fist. He didn't do it to be mean, it was part of his OCD. We would try to stop him or lighten the blow by placing our hands on top of the head of the person he was hitting. He didn't usually hit hard, but sometimes it was enough to give you a headache. Yes, he used to get me when I first started working there. I would try to distract him when he wanted to hit me. One time he tried so I told him to sing the theme song for the Flintstones (John could sing almost and theme song for any TV show). He sang the last line of the song and then yelled out a big "HO!" and bopped me over the head. After a little while I finally put my foot down and let him know he wasn't going to bop me over the head anymore. He backed away from people who stood up to him. But his housemates didn't really have the ability to stand up to him so that's why John would always go after them. His other housemates usually laughed at him when they got bopped over the head, for some reason it was funny to them.

There are so many more stories I could tell you about these four individuals and I think I will talk more about them later. I've said enough for today.

Jared Didn't Want a Snickers Coupon

2009-09-04T17:14:00.012-04:00

If there's one big thing that happens around here every year, it's the Little League World Series. People come from all over the world to witness this spectacle. I got to be a part of it this year. I was supposed to volunteer at the concession stand for two days, but instead I only did one day. The first day I was wearing sandals and they wouldn't let me work. I had never worked in the food industry before, but I made sure not to wear sandals on the second day.

So on the second day I worked the cash register. So if you were at the LLWS and got some food, there's a possibility that I spit in your hamburger. Just kidding! If you were at the LLWS there's a possibility that I waited on you. It was great to get a chance to volunteer at this event. A few days later I checked in with a temp agency I am registered with to see if they had any jobs available. I was hoping for a full-time job, but they didn't have any. But they did have a job available over the weekend at the Little League World Series, so I took the job. The job was on Saturday and Sunday, the last two days of the LLWS. My job was to work for the Mars candy company handing out Snickers coupons at the exit of the Little League Stadium. We worked near a security station where they had metal detectors for people coming into the stadium. On Saturday the weather was being unpredictable, it had been raining on and off all day. In fact, we had to wait awhile for the rain to stop before we could start our shift handing out coupons. The sky finally cleared up and the sun came out. We weren't down there long before dark clouds came rolling in again and it started to rain a little.

It was just a small sprinkle at first and then it started coming down harder so we went into the security station to wait it out. All of a sudden the rain just started hammering us. It was coming in sideways into the security station. Stuff was flying everywhere. After it calmed down, the person in charge of the Snickers booth told us we could go home for the day. We were still paid for the four hours even though we only worked two.

The field I parked in was fairly dry when I got there, but when I walked back to my car this is what I found:

There was a girl there in the field that I knew from church. She was there with her boyfriend and she was unable to get out of her parking spot because of all the rain that had fallen. So her boyfriend and I had to move the wooden beams that were behind her car so she could back out instead of have to drive through a pond. I had to take my shoes off to get into my car. You can actually see my shoes behind my car in the two pictures above. The field was a muddy mess.

Good thing I have four wheel drive.

The second day was much nicer than the first. Security was tight though because vice president Joe Biden was there to throw out the first ball. I actually saw his limo escorted by secret service and some police cars out on the highway on my way to the stadium. They stopped all traffic on the highway so he could get to the stadium. So I ended up being fifteen minutes late for my shift. I told the person in charge of the Snickers booth that I was late because the vice president held me up. I figured it would be the only chance I would have in this lifetime to use that as an excuse for being late.

So we spent the next few hours handing out Snickers coupons. It was a fun job especially if you enjoy people watching. One time I tried to hand a coupon to this one guy and he said "No." It wasn't until he said "No" that I realized who it was. It was Jared Fogle, you know, the Subway guy.

Of course he wouldn't want a Snickers coupon, that's understandable. He could have been nicer about it and said "No thanks" or "No thanks, and try the new Chicken Teriyaki sub at Subway, Eat Fresh!" But he didn't, he just said "No". Jared was there to represent Subway of course, he's been at the LLWS a few times.

So we finally finished up our shifts after California won the final game. As I was walking towards my car Joe Biden's plane flew overhead so I snapped a picture of it.

How do I know it was Joe Biden's plane? Because I live in the middle of Pennsylvania, we don't have planes that big in these parts, not at our little rinky-dink airport, no sir-ee. So the one thing that makes our little part of the world famous, but also chaotic once a year is once again over and we can all get back to our peaceful existence here in Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

Moses Said to Pharoah, "Lego my people"

2009-09-02T15:45:00.007-04:00

I know it's been around for awhile but I just happened to stumble upon it by reading Jason Boyett's blog. He finds all kinds of cool stuff. What am I talking about? I'm talking about the Brick Testament. It is a retelling of the Bible through the use of Legos®. It was created by Rev. Brendan Powell Smith. What Rev. Brendan has created is a funny, awesome, stupendous, five-star, two thumbs up, way of sharing the Bible. I think it's a great tool, not just for kids but for people of any age to enjoy and learn from.

It even has a content notice section on the bottom of the page:

N=Nudity
S=Sexual Content
V=Violence
C=Cursing

Who ever thought the Bible would require a rating system? Seriously though, there are some stories in the Bible that aren't for the kiddies. Rev. Brendan has taken a few liberties as well, but purely for comic effect. This wasn't meant to be a legit version of the Bible like some of the other translations.

I think this site proves that you are never too young to play with Legos®. I still play with Legos®, except it's in the form of Star Wars, Indiana Jones, and Batman on the Playstation®. My girlfriend's little boy has some of those over-sized Legos® and I can't wait until he graduates up to using the smaller Legos® so I can build things with him. In fact, the other day, he and his mom went to McDonalds®. He got a Happy Meal® which was supposed to come with a Lego® racer, but instead they put a girls' toy in his Happy Meal®. How dare they! I took that girly toy back to Micky D's® and demanded that they exchange it for a boys' toy. Actually, I asked nicely and they were very cooperative. Thank you Micky D's® in Williamsport®, Pennsylvania®. Okay, I know, I'm going overboard with the ®'s.

After looking at Rev. Brendan's blog, I noticed a few other projects he's worked on including one called Barfield, which is in the same vain as Garfield Minus Garfield, Garfield Minus Arbuckle, and Garfield: Lost in Translation. He also has a music project called The Human Heads.

Seems like a pretty interesting guy overall. I'll have to check out some of the other things he's done. I'll finish this post with a few pictures from the Brick Testament. Enjoy!

God instructs Noah to build the Ark. I love the reaction of the horses in the background.

Noah, naked and drunk in his tent.

Baby Moses

Jesus teaches about hypocrisy "Take the plank out of your own eye."

Stephen preaches just before being stoned. It says in the Bible that Jesus's diciples performed many signs and wonders, maybe Stephen was able to remove his head at will, who knows?

The Last Supper

Purple Door 2009: Day Two

2009-08-31T11:36:00.011-04:00

We started day two off by watching Farewell Flight perform, really good band, I picked up a couple of their albums. (I'll have links to all the band websites at the end of this post.) After that we watched Reilly perform again. They were really good. They didn't have their full band the night before and they just came out to do some praise and worship songs, but they did their own songs on Saturday.

(Farewell Flight)

(Reilly)

For lunch we left the grounds and sought after food elsewhere. We ended up at Neato Burrito.

Jesse enjoyed his burrito.

Natalie enjoyed her burrito.

April enjoyed her burrito.

I was defeated by my burrito in a bowl.

Anywho, we went back to Purple Door and decided to rest in the shade of a tree and try to take a little nap. That rest was interrupted by some really bad hip-hop, I won't mention who it was. So we went to the Gallery stage to see Deas Vail perform, followed by Seabird, and then Bradley Hathaway. All great performers, although I prefer Bradley's poetry over his music.

(Deas Vail)

(Deas Vail)

(Seabird)

(Seabird)

(Bradley Hathaway)

While we were at the Gallery Stage we signed the Purple Door. Here's April signing her name:

(She broke her ankle a week before Purple Door, but she was still able to go. She was such a trooper walking all over the place.)

(Can you find our names?)

We went back to the main stage where Renee Yohe, from To Write Love On Her Arms, was supposed to speak but she couldn't make it. Then Jamie Tworkowski, the founder of To Write Love On Her Arms was supposed to speak in her place, but he was not able to make it either. Instead, Stephen Christian from Anberlin came out to speak on their behalf. He had a lot of good things to say. I wish I could find a video on YouTube of his speech but I don't see any, sorry. But here's a picture:

Natalie and I went to the main stage merch section to look around. We spoke with the drummer of Farewell Flight. Natalie gave him Plural Form's business card and he said he would take a listen. We don't know if he ever did. We also spoke with the guy who plays trumpet for mewithoutYou. He's a new addition to the band.

We finished out the night by watching John Mark McMillan, Disciple, mewithoutYou, and Anberlin perform. Sorry, I don't have any pictures. Actually, I have some from when I went to Purple Door two years ago of mewithoutYou and Anberlin, so I'll use those. The pictures are kind of blurry, it was dark out.

(mewithoutYou)

(mewithoutYou)

(Anblurlin...I mean Anberlin)

(Anberlin)

Overall, it was a pretty good weekend. I hope to go again next year and the year after that and so on. Here's the list and links of all the artists that played on Saturday:

Oceans In Love

Farewell Flight

High Flight Society

Children 18:3

Run Kid Run

Every Day Process

R-Swift

Fireflight

John Mark McMillan

Disciple

mewithoutYou

Anberlin

Ace Augustine

Texas in July

Becoming the Archetype

Spoken

I am Terrified

War of Ages

The Showdown

Project 86

Abel

Reilly

B. Reith

Rainchildren

Deas Vail

Seabird

Bradley Hathaway

One thing I noticed is there are way too many bands with the word "flight" in their name.

Purple Door 2009: Day One

2009-08-24T16:09:00.007-04:00

A little over a week ago I went to the Purple Door arts and music festival with my girlfriend and my friends Natalie and Jesse. There were a lot of great bands there this year. We arrived Friday evening on August 14th. We watched House of Heroes first and then walked around the grounds looking at all the booths they had set up.

(House of Heroes)

There was a booth for Compassion, The Love Alliance, Fakelife Clothing, and Relevant Magazine just to name a few. So Purple Door isn't just about music and art, it's also about activism. It's about getting God's people to get out there and make a difference because that's what true Christianity is about. Unfortunately for many Christianity has become reduced to t-shirts, bumper stickers, and music that doesn't do much more than rip off popular culture. It has become a lifestyle for many rather than a life change.

Anyway, I'm ranting. Back to the experience we had. And sorry for such a link-heavy post, but there's a lot of good stuff out there to see, so click on them, after you're done reading this blog of course. Just kidding, click on them now before you forget to. After looking at all the booths and merch, we went back to the main stage to see pastor speaker, and artist Eric Samuel Timm. He had a great message and painted this awesome picture:

It says "Share Your Love" if you can't see it, or you can click on any picture to see it full size. After Eric was finished a band called Reilly came out and performed some praise and worship music. I went through my rap and hip-hop phase a few years ago but I'm not really into that kind of music that much anymore, but I will say that I was impressed by an artist called Lecrae. He had some great lyrics and had some cool things to say up on stage. Finally to end the night, Family Force 5 performed. We stayed for a couple songs but my girlfriend and I both agreed that they were really obnoxious. They weren't that bad when I saw them at Purple Door in 2007. But they were just annoying this year, I'm sorry if I've offended any fans. Maybe I'm just getting old, I just turned 31 this past Saturday.

We met up with Jesse and Natalie at the hotel room that we got a good deal on. We paid the same for a suite that we would have paid for a regular room at the Wyndham hotel. It wasn't a huge room though, but we didn't spend a whole lot of time in the hotel. They had a pretty good continental breakfast in the morning though. After breakfast we went back to Purple Door for day two. I'll talk about day two another day, but below is a list and links for all the bands that played on Friday night.

House of Heroes

Nevertheless

Reilly

Lecrae

Family Force 5

Shawn McDonald

Rescue is Possible

Hyland

The Pledge

Receiving the Ghost

Pillar

The reason they were able to have so many acts in one night is because they have three different stages. They have a Main stage for the bigger acts, a Gallery stage for the up and coming acts, and a Hard Music stage for all the hardcore music.

Hope Hill ~ Day 5,6, and 7

2009-08-21T15:05:00.008-04:00

Day 5 ~ Finishing Up the Fence

We kept working on the fence all morning, we were getting closer and closer to getting it finished. We did as much as we could before lunch. Then we met with the girls again. They were playing basketball outside during their recreation time. Then we played them in a game of softball. We weren't trying to hit the ball over the fence or anything, but we gave them some good competition. They were making their own rules up too. One time I was running from first to second base and one of the girls grabbed hold of me (she was a big girl too) and said "You're not going to second!" So then I was tagged out. It was funny. After the game I went up to her, shook her hand and told her it was a good play even though I don't think they would allow that in a real game. It was good to get out and be active with them rather than doing arts and crafts with them all day. After dinner we went back to the fence one more time and we finally finished it!

And it made the cows happy.

Day 6 ~ Water Balloons!

We had a big surprise for the girls on Friday. We had water balloons and squirt guns. It took us hours to fill up hundreds of water balloons and they were all gone in less than ten minutes.

But there was plenty of water to keep refilling the squirt guns. The girls had a blast with it. Most of these girls probably never got to play with squirt guns or throw a water balloon at somebody before. I was glad we were able to give them that experience. Then there were those who had buckets and coolers full of water dumped on them. I think it was probably the most fun some of them had ever had. I was glad to be a part of it. We had to say goodbye to the girls after that. A lot of them were really sad we had to go. We were all sad we had to leave soon. That evening we built a campfire and sat around it. We had some S'mores.

Day 7 ~ Departure

It seems that every time our church has a mission trip something bad happens to one of the vans. Fortunately for this trip the only thing that happened was one of the vans had to be jump started before we left. Even though we were all tired and sore from the week, we didn't want to leave. It's hard to go, to get back into the normal routine of life after an experience like that. I worked on a slideshow most of the way home that would be shown in church the following week. We stopped at a Ponderosa to eat on the way home, it was alright. The trip home didn't seem as long as the trip there, but even the trip there didn't seem that long. I hope I can go back again next year.

Hope Hill ~ Day 3 and 4

2009-08-20T18:18:00.013-04:00

Day 3 ~ Water, Water Everywhere

The third day we went back to the fence to chip away more paint and apply new paint which I think was actually tar. But soon after we started some dark clouds came rolling in. After a few drops of rain started falling, our team leader came down the hill with the truck to take us back to the bunk house. Soon after it started pouring heavier than I've ever seen rain pour down. There was a lot of lightning and loud claps of thunder. We stayed inside most of the morning just relaxing. The power went out in the bunk house for awhile. At noon we met up with the girls again. Another person on our team shared her life story with the girls. Then they did another art project where the girls painted on stones that had been painted white. One one side they painted words and images of the negative things that happened in their lives. On the other side they painted what they wanted their lives to be like in the future. The idea for the white stone comes from Revelation 2:17: "Let the person who is able to hear, listen and follow what the Spirit proclaims to all the churches. To the one who conquers through faithfulness even unto death, I will feed you with hidden manna and give you a white stone. Upon this stone, a new name is engraved. No one knows this name except for its recipient." After the girls painted on the stones and had a chance to dry, they were placed outside the chapel among some of the flowers and plants that grew there.

That evening we had to clear some weeds away from a grape vine. The vine didn't even have a lattice or an arbor to grow on. We got all those weeds cleared out of there though. After that we went back to the bunk house to get as much rest as we could for the next day.

Day 4 ~ Back to Work

The rain wasn't so bad on Wednesday. We went down to a storage barn to separate the junk from the good stuff. All the junk went to the trash heap while all the good stuff was consolidated into a large barn.

On Wednesday, they have a chapel service at the school. most of the girls at the school attend this every week. There was a guy and a girl who came to lead the group in a couple worship songs. Then one of our team members gave a message. Then the girls had to go back to their classes. Shortly after all this happened, the little ten year old girl was attacked by two large white dogs pictured below:

No, she wasn't really attacked, unless you consider getting covered in doggy slobber an attack. They were the nicest dogs. We did another arts and crafts project with the girls after the chapel service. They were given small notebooks to use as journals, but since the notebooks were spiral-bound they couldn't be given to the girls. But then we worked something out, we took all the metal coils out of the notebooks and tied them together using ribbon. You see, the girls at the school can't have anything that they might use to harm themselves or others. That includes the metal wiring on a notebook. So when we altered them they were able to keep the notebooks. They spent time doing artwork on the covers of the notebooks.

Later that evening we went into town for more supplies and I had to pick a few things up as well. I got a chance to call my mom and my girlfriend while we were in cell phone range. While we were at Wal-Mart I was walking around with two of the girls that were on the trip. The one accidentally walked into the mens' room. When she noticed she was in the wrong place she started to walk out just as someone else was walking into the mens' room. She looked at him and said "I don't know where I am." It was hilarious. Then I was walking through the womens' clothing section with them because one of them needed socks. Two of them went around the corner to look at more socks and I saw a pair that looked really soft so I touched them. I said "Those are nice" as I peeked around the corner to tell them. They weren't there, but there was a girl standing there I didn't know who was looking at bras. That was a little embarrassing. After Wal-Mart, we stopped by Dairy Queen for some treats. Look at how determined we are:

After we finished up a DQ, we went back to the bunk house to turn in for the night. But when we got there we found out we had a little more work to do. Our leader and his son had gone over to the cafeteria to wax the floor. So we went over to help by moving all the furniture and everything else back into the cafeteria. It ended up being a pretty late night, we didn't finish until midnight.

I'll have the rest of the story up later, hopefully tomorrow.

Hope Hill ~ Day 1 and 2

2009-08-19T08:46:00.009-04:00

I'd like to talk about the mission trip I went on a couple weeks ago to the Hope Hill School in Hope, Kentucky. I might take the next 2 or 3 days to talk about it since there is so much to talk about. I'll section it off into the 7 days we were there. I'll tell you a little bit about the school first. Hope Hill is a school for teenage girls between the ages of 12 and 17 who have been abandoned, abused, or may have been into drugs and alcohol. Many of the girls have behaviors and can lash out violently or verbally. I've never seen it in the two years I've gone there, they're usually well behaved when work camps come, especially if the work camp is there to spend some time with the girls and do activities with them. The goal of Hope Hill is to give these girls a second chance at life, to try to turn them around so the don't end up dead or in jail. The program is Christ centered. There is a chapel at the school and the girls are encouraged to attend, but not forced. About 85% of the students attend. There is also a Bible study during the week and about 50% of the girls go to that.

Day 1 ~ The Arrival

We packed up our two church vans with supplies and luggage and started out around 7am. It's a 7 hour trip. I spent most of the time in a sleeping bag in the back seat because the air conditioning was blasting. I spent the time getting to know my teammates better, working on my laptop, reading my Bible and Relevant Magazine, and messing around with my cell phone. When we arrived we got unpacked, pictured above is the bunk house we stayed in. Some of the team members wanted to walk around the campus. I was there the year before so I gave them a tour. I told them about all the different buildings on campus and showed them the horses. They have a horse therapy program at the school.

After the tour we went back to the bunk house and just unwound from the long trip. We played some board games and read from some journals that people who have stayed in the bunk house have written in. There were some funny entries left in there, mostly by some teenage kids. One entry said: "Dear Journal, These last few days have been very weird. First yesterday Hillary got run over by a van and went to the hospital but nothing was broken, and I'm really glad nothing was because me and her were best friend for six years until middle school, but were still good friends. Then after that, the second bathroom in ours got flooded and then leaked through the wall into our room and got all over our stuff. That was bad plus today we looked at horses and one of them bit Rachel on the arm. And now its bruised. Plus its been raining pretty much everyday, all day. But I think God does everything for a reason and I'm glad that I got to come here. It should be all uphill from here. I feel that God brought us here for a reason and is doing his work. This is a very blessed place. I hope to come back next year. Bye." I think my favorite part is where she said "It should all be uphill from here." That's hilarious.

Day 2 ~ The Work Begins

We met the groundskeeper, Andy, to find out what jobs he had for us to do. The first job he had for us was to scrape the old paint off a fence and then repaint it. He told us we should have it done by noon. Here's the fence:

Noon? Oh, he must have meant noon next Thursday. I just want to say we were not done by noon. By the way, there are about 5 or 6 more sections of the fence that go out of frame to the right. But we did finish it before the trip was over as well as many other jobs I'll talk about later. We worked on the fence for a few hours and then went back to the bunk house for lunch. Then we met up with the girls at the school in the cafeteria. There were 45 girls attending the school at the time. One of our team members told her story about her life, it was pretty heart-wrenching. At one time her 10 year old daughter who came with us got up and gave her a hug while she was talking. All the girls at the school gave a big "Awwwwww." It was so sweet. That little 10 year old girl was the heart and soul of the trip, she got along with the girls at the school very well and she made a lot of friends. After the talk we did an art project with the girls, we tie-dyed bandannas. I wish we could have spent more time with the girls at the school but we only had limited time each day. We worked on the fence a little while longer and then went back to the bunk house to eat dinner and play some games and talk for awhile before going to bed.

I'll continue this story tomorrow.

I'm Back!

2009-08-17T08:47:00.004-04:00

Hey everybody! And by everybody I mean all two of you who actually read this blog. I'm back! I know I said I'd be back in a week. Two weeks ago I was away in Kentucky on a mission trip. The night I came home my girlfriend fell and hurt her ankle. It's a small break but a bad sprain. I spent all week with her last week helping her out so that's why there were no blog posts last week. She is recovering well. In fact, she went to the Purple Door arts and music festival with me this past weekend. We saw bands like Anberlin, mewithoutYou, Deas Vail, Seabird, Farewell Flight, and a few others.

The mission trip went well. We accomplished a good amount of manual labor as well as spending time with the girls at the Hope Hill school. Some of the people who came on the trip shared stories about their lives, we did arts and crafts with them, and had some recreation time with them playing basketball, softball, and throwing water balloons at each other. We spent hours making hundreds of water balloons and they were all gone in less than ten minutes!

I'm still looking for a job, but I have experienced so many things this past month that I could not have experienced had I been working. I was able to help out by taking pictures at VBS (Vacation Bible School), I went on a mission trip, and was able to be there for my girl when she needed me. So even though I'm not working, I've been pretty busy for the most part. I'll talk more about Purple Door and my trip to Hope Hill later, I just wanted to update everyone (both of you) as to what's been going on the last two weeks. I also need to finish up talking about my past jobs in the Work, Work, Work, Edition (WWWE).

Pennsyltucky

2009-07-31T08:13:00.003-04:00

I have come to the realization that I have been laid off from my job at just the right time.

"But Dan, what do you mean by that? How can anytime be the right time to get laid off?"

Well, I'll tell you. I was laid off at just the right time so I could help out by taking pictures at VBS this year. I wouldn't have been able to do this if I was still at my job. Also, while I was still at my job I wasn't able to get the days I needed off to go on a week long mission trip to Kentucky, but now I can.

"But Dan, what will you do for income?"

Well, for now I'll be collecting unemployment. Things were very stagnant at my former job and I felt uncomfortable there because my boss and I didn't get along very well. I think it's a good thing that I'm not there anymore.

"But Dan, aren't you worried that you might not find another job?"

I don't think that this should be a time for worrying, in fact no time is a good time for worrying. How does worrying help anything? Like I said before, I was let go at just the right time so I could help with VBS and go on this mission trip. I get a chance to serve God in ways that I was not able to while I was working.

"But Dan, how will you live if you can't find another job?"

How will I live? Well first of all, Christ is life. It is not a job that will provide me with life. Too many people put too much emphasis on how important their job is to the point where their job becomes their god. Yes, I know that I need to eat, sleep, and pay the bills, but I also need to trust and have faith that God will provide. God has provided me with a family and with friends who won't let me end up in the gutter. I pray for those who aren't as fortunate as that. But I also know I can't just sit on my butt and wait for God to drop things out of the sky. I need to meet God halfway and get out there, do things, make things happen. I know that God will provide me with a new job, but that doesn't mean I shouldn't be looking in the newspaper or online because I feel those are sometimes the outlets he chooses to reveal these things to us. How pointless would life be if God just handed us everything we wanted while we just sat around?

"Well Dan, you make a good point. Thanks for clearing things up for me."

You're welcome.

"Hey Dan."

Yes.

"Uh, don't you think people will think you're a little schizo talking to yourself like this?"

No comment.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

So yes, I will be going to Kentucky next week, so there will be no blog posts next week. I will be out of range. No internet. For a week. Pray for me. Seriously, I will have a great time. I'm going to a school called Hope Hill. The school takes in teenage girls who have had a rough life. Many have been abused, abandoned, been into drugs and alcohol. So we're going there to do some maintenance work on the buildings they live in and the grounds. Weed whacking, painting, hammering nails and all that good stuff. But we'll also spend time with the girls teaching them about God and about what he has done in our lives. And we are going to talk with them not just at them. I find that the best way to connect with people is to interact with them individually and show them and tell them what God has done in my life. Just standing on a stage and talking at people and telling them what God is about without mentioning any personal stories is not as effective. We'll also do some fun stuff with them. We have some activities and games planned out. We need to let those girls know they are not alone in their suffering and that they can overcome whatever they've been through. Hopefully those who never heard of Jesus will come to know him and those who have heard of him will truly come to know who he is and what he came to do. He came to liberate.

I'll be back after next week, keep me in your prayers. God bless.

I'm a Sell-Out

2009-07-29T16:25:00.002-04:00

Yes, I did it, I went and monetized my blog by allowing ads on here, but hey, people do crazy stuff when they're unemployed. Don't know if it will really help, but hey, it's free and it can't hurt, right?

Blogity-Blah-Blah-Tube

2009-07-28T08:37:00.005-04:00

I'm gonna take a little break from telling stories from the different jobs I've had over the years today since today is a busy day for me. But I wanted everyone to know I set up a YouTube channel to correspond with this blog. The channel I made is called Blogityblahblah. Below are the four videos I have up so far. I'm hoping to do some video blogs. Look for the first one to be up in the next month or so. Enjoy these videos.

This first one is a trip we took to Knoebels. I went with my girlfriend, her little boy, and a few other friends. This video features the Moon Bounce, The 1 1/2 Mile Train Ride, The Haunted House, Mini-Golf, The Log Flume and some pictures as well.

This is a hike we took this past January in Rauchtown, PA near Ravensburg Park. I went with my sister and a couple friends.

You've heard me talk before about Valley Mosaic on this blog. This is a mural of a mosaic we painted on the wall. The song featured is "Cover What You Can" by Copeland.

I took some video footage of a crazy lightning storm awhile ago, edited it together and put together a song in Garage Band.

Hope you enjoyed those.

WWWE: I Made $20!

2009-07-27T09:17:00.003-04:00

So after I left the Shoe Dept. I found a job only a couple miles from my apartment. I worked for Blockbuster Video in York, PA. There were about five Blockbuster Video stores at the time in York, I worked at the one on the corner or George St. and Rt. 30 just in case you were wondering.

The cool thing about this job was that we could rent five movies a week for free! We also got to rent movies two weeks before their release date. The uncool thing was how I got tricked into working on Christmas. When I interviewed for the job, the manager told me we had to work at least two holidays out of the year. I told her I wanted Christmas and Easter off and she said that was okay. It was around Thanksgiving of 1998 when I was supposed to start working there. The manager told me that I didn't have to start working until after Thanksgiving so that it wouldn't count as one of my holidays off. I thought it was a good idea. So I started working after Thanksgiving. I told the manager what days I wanted off for Christmas so I would have enough time to go home to see my family. She said that's going to be a problem and I asked her why. She reminded me that she told me in the interview I had to work at least two holidays in a year. Then she said there are only two holidays left this year, Christmas and New Year's Eve. Not only did she tell me in the interview that I could have Christmas off, but she made it sound like a good idea to start after Thanksgiving. See, if I would have started before and worked on Thanksgiving I could have had Christmas off and worked on New Year's Eve. That's how I was tricked into working on Christmas. I was still able to go home and see my family for a couple days before Christmas, but what my boss did was just conniving and evil.

Fortunately, the big wigs in the company like conniving and evil managers so they promoted her to become the manager of a different Blockbuster and her replacement at our store was really cool. We got along great. Everyone who worked there was pretty cool. There was a kiddie section in the store close to where the cash registers were and when it was late we would put on movies that we liked, but still with a PG rating like Labyrinth or Star Wars, and we would watch them from the front counter.

One night I was working with one of the assistant managers and we were bored, really bored. The guy I was working with was only about 5'3" and he said "I bet you can't do this" and he jumped straight up and onto the counter. The height of the counter was almost at my chest. I figured if he could do it, I could do it. So I hopped right up there and I did it! But I landed on just the tips of my toes and I started to lose my balance. Both my feet came right out from under me and I came down on both my shins on the corner of the counter. It hurt so bad I just started laughing. I sat in a chair and started rubbing my shins. I looked at the assistant manager, he looked horrified and he told me he would pay me for a new pair of pants. I asked him why. I looked down and my one pant leg was soaked with blood. I didn't even know I was bleeding at first. So I went to the back room and cleaned it up. It was pretty sore for the next few days, but the bloodstain came out of the pants and I made $20! I don't think I would ever try doing something like that again though. To this day I still have a little white indented circle on my right leg.

It was fun working there, I was even voted employee of the month twice while I was there. But the time finally came where I had to move back home to Jersey Shore, PA. It was sad leaving that place, but I was able to transfer to the Blockbuster Video in Williamsport, PA. It wasn't as much fun working there as it was in York. It was the only Blockbuster Video in Williamsport so it was very busy. Usually on a Friday and Saturday night I would work an 8 hour shift and not even get a chance to leave my cash register because the line was never-ending, and this was with four registers open! It was busy! People around here have nothing better to do I guess. I don't have to many memorable moments from working at the Williamsport Blockbuster so I think I'll end it here. It will probably take a few posts to talk about my next job since there are a lot of stories to tell about that one. Till next time, adios!

WWWE: Manure, Strawberries, Manure

2009-07-22T10:34:00.004-04:00

Okay, where were we? We are at job #6 or #7, but I don't really count the telemarketing thing as a job since I was only there for three days, so I'll say we're at #6. So in the cliff-hanging conclusion of yesterday's post I had mentioned that I was running low on funds and my roommate had been laid off so we did some job hunting together. We both found a job, at the same place. It seemed cool that we were working at the same place, but we also had the same classes at college, and shared the same room at the apartment (bunk bed of course). So yea, we were around each other a lot, which wasn't always a good thing.

We had gotten a job at the Shoe Dept. at the York Galleria Mall. It was a pretty good job. The people I worked with were friendly. To be honest I don't really have any significant memories of working there, nothing all that interesting to share except for the time Rip Torn (Men In Black, Dodgeball, Bee Movie) came there one day to buy shoes, but I was off that day. My roommate was there though and he told me all about it.

Actually I do remember another story now. One day I was helping a lady with a pair of shoes but she felt uncomfortable to go up to the counter to purchase the shoes. She said she wouldn't go up there because the man working the cash register was black. I thought she was being racist, but she said she was afraid, she had been abused by a black man when she was young. I assured her that he was a good man, but her fear was too great. I tried to convince her there was nothing to be afraid of, but she gave me her money to go up and pay for her shoes for her. It was difficult explaining to the cashier why I was making the transaction for her. It really upset him when he found out why. It was uncomfortable for me too. I can understand why she would be afraid because of a traumatizing incident, but instead of living like that I think she should have sought help. Because even if she wasn't racist, it seemed like she was.

Our boss relocated to a new Shoe Dept. that was opening at the Park City Mall in Lancaster, PA. Shortly after she went there I asked if I could be transferred there. I thought there would be more of an opportunity to make more money since we worked on commission, but only if we made more than what we would make on our hourly wage in a week. The drive from York to Lancaster was about a 40 minute drive and it smelled like manure almost the entire way, except for a candy factory that I passed on the way, then it smelled like strawberries, but then shortly went back to manure. So it was manure, strawberries, manure.

I enjoyed working at the Park City Mall, it's a good sized mall. I got along with everyone there...well, almost everyone. There was this one guy that I thought was a real jerk, but I tried not to let him bother me. There was an older woman who worked there and she enjoyed my sense of humor and she also enjoyed the jerky guy's sense of humor too. He would give me a hard time because he was jealous that I made her laugh too. But she explained to him that we both had a different sense of humor. She said he had an R-rated sense of humor and I had a G-rated sense of humor. I told her "Oh, c'mon, at least give me a PG-rating."

Once our vacuum cleaner quit on us so we had to borrow one from Suncoast Video. They had a weird looking vacuum cleaner, it looked like something from Star Wars. It really sucked...I mean it didn't suck, I mean it sucked at sucking. It sucked in a metaphorical sense, but not in a literal sense...yea.

As much as I enjoyed working there, I wasn't making more like I though I would, plus it was a long trip and I used a lot of gas to get there and back. Also, traveling 40 minutes up and back ate into my study time for school, so I had to look for another job, one that was much closer. My boss was really sad to see me go, she was another good boss, one of very few. I went back to visit every so often though. So that's all for today, I'll continue the story tomorrow. Have a great day!

WWWE: No Job for You, NEXT!

2009-07-21T10:04:00.004-04:00

Over the past month or so I've been talking about all the various jobs I've had throughout my life since I was 13. It almost seems appropriate in a strange way that I am laid off right now from work because I'm at a point in my story where I was unemployed.

After leaving Freshlife (the place I talked about last week) I moved three hours away from home to York, PA to start college at the Bradley Academy for the Visual Arts. I was supposed to get a job working for RPS. For some reason they decided not to hire me. They did hire my roommate though.

I had saved up a good amount of money so I was able to live on that for awhile, but it was slowly going away. I interviewed for another job. It was a telemarketing job which only lasted three days, I couldn't stand it. It was so boring repeating myself on the phone over and over and over again, I can't stand that kind of repetition. Plus, I don't really like talking on the phone all that much. After the third day of working there I told my supervisor that this just wasn't for me and I wanted to leave. She totally understood and said it's not for everyone, so I just left. It was the first time and only time I didn't give a two week notice before leaving a job.

The reason I couldn't stand working there was not just because of the repetition, but because of some of the nasty things people would say on the phone. I didn't take it personally but that didn't mean it didn't take a toll on me. Although there was this one time I was speaking with an older lady and it was around Thanksgiving. So we had a nice little discussion about how her family comes to her house at Thanksgiving. But then one of the supervisors came by and heard me talking and said "Just hang up on her." I let the little old lady know that it was time for me to go and told her good-bye. I know they were trying to run a business, but that was cold.

Another thing that bothered me was sometimes I would call somebody and I would ask for someone and the person on the other line would say that person had passed away recently. I doubt all of them were telling the truth because it happened so often but it made me feel horrible to think that I may have upset someone who was still going through the mourning process.

I was unemployed from September of 1997 to January of 1998. My money had pretty much run out and I was living on ramen noodles. Eventually my roommate was laid off from RPS, so we started job hunting together. So that will be the subject of next week, or tomorrow. I've decided to put to rest the theme days.

So let's take a moment of silence and say good-bye to Inspiring Minds Monday, Story Time Tuesday, Artsy Fartsy Wednesday, Deep Thought Thursday, and Freakin' Funny Friday. It's going to be random from here on out. I'll continue talking about my jobs daily until I catch up to the present, there's still quite a few more to go. I'll be sure to keep everyone informed on the job hunt, it started yesterday and I applied to a few places and I have a few places I'm going to call today. Keep me in your thoughts and prayers. Thank you.

Blogity-blah-blah-update

2009-07-20T06:44:00.002-04:00

Okay, I said I would have another update today and I would let all of you know what's going on. I've been laid off from my job. I don't think I'll have time today to do an Inspiring Minds Monday post today, I'm going to be busy with looking for a new job and taking care of a few other things. I'm sorry to miss today's post but I've almost gone three months without missing a weekday and that's not too shabby. Now that things are different and I'm getting used to this whole blogging thing, I might not have such a rigid format to this blog. Instead of assigning each weekday to a certain theme, I might just post whatever's on my mind that day, I guess that's how most bloggers do it anyway. Besides, it's becoming difficult to come up with subject matter for each theme. I've been talking about all of the different jobs I've had for the past month or so on Story Time Tuesday and I might just take the rest of the week and part of next week to talk about the rest of my jobs.

I also want to talk about another blog I've started as a side project. It's called the "Universal Language of Mankind" and you can just click on that link to go there, but I will tell you it was inspired by three different things: Engrish.com, kissthisguy.com, and a blog called Garfield: Lost in Translation. So go check it out!

Blogity-blah-blah-update

2009-07-17T15:31:00.002-04:00

Sorry for the lack of artwork on today's Freakin' Funny Friday post. I just found a pic on Google and put it there. I always try to make my own artwork though for these posts. Some things have changed in my life recently and I'm hoping to keep up with this blog during the week, I'll tell everyone later what's going on, I don't want my friends and family to know until I tell them in person and I'd rather not have them find out by reading my blog. So I'll probably have another update on Monday.

Also next Monday I will be starting another blog in addition to this one. It's going to be a fun little experiment, some people will think it's funny, others will think it's stupid, but I'll let you know more about that on Monday as well, for now it's a secret. Have a great weekend!

Freakin' Funny Friday ~ Big Old Box of Crap

2009-07-17T08:51:00.024-04:00

Last week we looked at some weird things people do to their pets. Today we'll be looking at strange and unusual products of all kinds, including some pet products. I found some of these over at Incredible Things. They also have a bunch of cool innovative products as well, but today we are focusing on the weird and bizarre. Let's start off with some baby products.

How many people think "Hmmm...I wish someone would invent something to hold my baby in place that look like hands severed halfway up the forearm." This is called the Zaky Infant Pillow and is supposed to help babies sleep better, but I'm not so sure they thought it through.

Sure, it frees up your hands while you use the restroom, but what happens when you walk out and a few moments you think to yourself "I feel like I'm missing something." Better yet, what about the person who walks into the stall and sees the temporarily forgotten baby hanging there on the wall?

Have you ever siphoned gasoline out of a gas tank before? Me neither, but this is kind of what it looks like except instead of a gas tank at the other end it's a baby's nostril. Now they say that the mucus is stopped before it gets to the mouth, but still, you still won't see me using one of these, ugh (shudder).

Yes, I did a double-take when I saw this one too. It's a baby bottom fan to keep your baby's bottom nice and dry. Or you could just do this...

Ah, yes, Mr. Mom, starring Michael Keaton. One of the great movies of the early 80's and one of the first movies I remember seeing as a child. Go out and rent it if you haven't seen it.

Use this in conjunction with the Zaky Infant Pillow and you'll have your infant traumatized in no time!

What is that? Is it one of those chest-bursting aliens? No! Is it some kind of Siamese twin or some kind of mutant? No! It's called the Peekaru. It's a fleece that zips over your baby carrier. I still think it looks like something from a Sci-Fi movie though.

Now we'll move on to a couple of pet products.

This is the FroliCat BOLT Laser Cat Toy. Do you want to watch your cat chase a laser but don't want to sprain your wrist? This is the perfect product for those of you who are just too lazy or don't have enough time on your hands to spend some quality time with your cat so you leave it cooped up in the apartment all day by itself with no one to stoke it's fur or rub its belly.

Then we have the Remote Pet Feeding & Viewing Kit. I think there was something like this on the show The Office that Angela had to watch her cats via the internet. In addition to feeding your dog or cat while on vacation you can make sure they are using their FroliCat BOLT Laser Cat Toy as well.

We'll finish with some random products.

Wanna look good and feel really uncomfortable on the beach? Now you can!

Are you lazy? Do you like ice cream? Then try the Motorized Ice Cream Cone. No more tiring your wrist with an unmotorized ice cream cone. Just don't try to eat it when you've finished your ice cream.

One time I was wondering where Zinc was on the Periodical Table of Elements but I was in the shower at the time. Thanks to this shower curtain I no longer have to wait until I'm out of the shower to find out where all the elements are. Girl not included. In fact, if you own this just forget about girls entirely.

Yet another novelty for the bathroom, personalized TP. I personally like the one that says "Lost in Hell's Canyon" Get it? Okay, enough bathroom humor, let's move on.

This is a horror movie scene just waiting to happen. Yes, those are syringes made into a chandelier, and you can buy the scalpel mobile for the little ones. Just kidding that last one doesn't exist.

Why is there fur in my Wookie Cookie? These books also include recipes for Jawa Jerky, Ackbar's Snackbars, Vader's Taters, Potato Wedge Antilles, and Salacious Crumb Cake made with real Lando Lakes butter. There's even a section on jarring with Jar Jar. I could keep on going, but I'm gonna stop there. That's enough nerd-ness for now.

They have new car smell in a can and pine tree smell in a can for Christmas trees. Now there's New Book Smell for your electronic reading devices. Mmmmm, new book smell.

Hey, Snoop Dogg from 1993 called, he wants his doormat back.

Hey look, a hose with a plug. Let's mix water and electricity, yay!

This lock comes in handy when you have guests over who want to leave but you want them to stay. It doesn't come in handy when you're on the phone with the police and they say "The calls are coming from inside the house."

That's all for this week, enjoy your weekend and be sure to come back next week!

Deep Thought Thursday ~ Swimming in the Shallow End

2009-07-16T08:19:00.006-04:00

Today I think I'm going to swim in the shallow end of the thought pool and just have a collection of facts and some thoughts that have *popped* into my head from time to time. Some might make you think, some are just for fun, and others are probably gonna be just plain stupid, so let's dive in...oh wait, we can't do that today. Let's...slowly get used to the water as we go down the pool ladder.

Some of you may wonder where my nickname "Dr. louie" came from. I use that nickname for my e-mail and for most websites and forums I register with. When I was in high school my classmates nicknamed me Louie, probably because of my last name, Lewis. My dad was never called that in high school because he had a friend named Louie. I hated being called that at first, but after awhile it stuck. The only two people who still call me Louie to this day are my mom and my friend Josh. The "Dr." part came in when I was visiting the Five Iron Frenzy message board many years ago. I started posting as louie. I decided not to capitalize the L. After making some internet friends (that sounds so geeky) on the FIF site I started posting a thread called "Ask Dr. louie" and people would ask me questions and I'd try to give them funny answers. So that's how the nickname Dr. louie came to be. Nobody really calls me that in person though, just on the internet.

These next three paragraphs are the answers I gave to some of the questions people asked me on the FIF message boards. the first question was "Why do hot dogs come in packages of ten and buns in packages of eight?"

I think the reason why hot dogs come in packages of ten and hot dog buns come in packages of eight is a marketing scheme pointed at people who have Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. You see, people with OCD would probably feel the need to have the same amount of hot dogs and buns, so they would need to buy four packs of hot dogs and five packs of buns so they would have forty of each.

Another question someone asked me was "If a tree falls in the forest and no one is around to hear it, did it make a sound?"

After much research I have found that the tree did not fall on it's own, it was actually cut down by a lumberjack, a deaf lumberjack. So now we know how the tree fell, but we still don't know if it made a sound.

Okay, one more. Someone asked me "Why is there braille on drive-thru ATMs?"

The reason for that is if someone is driving a foreign car where the steering wheel is on the right and they have a blind passenger they will be able to use the ATM.

Here is a quote that I made up, it's pretty deep if you really think about it:

"Always look both ways when crossing a one way street." ~ Dan Lewis

I get annoyed when people pronounce the word "theater" with a long "a" sound. What if they pronounced a long "a" sound with other words. Try saying this sentence out loud using the long "a" sound: "Hey, could I get some peace and quiet please! I am trying to eat my freaking popcorn in the movie theater!"

Why do they need to tell us that the commentaries on DVDs do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the movie studio, blah, blah, blah, etc. in ten different languages when the commentary itself is only in one language? I just want to watch the freakin' movie!

I have been hit in the head and/or face with the following objects:

A softball
Two rocks*
Other peoples' heads
Tree branches
A rubber hockey puck
A 7-Iron*
A powdered doughnut
A shovel handle*
A dinner plate
Hot Sauce (up the nose)
A steel pipe
Snowballs
Rollerskates
Two dumbells
An apple*
and a bunch of others things I can't think of including all kinds of sporting equipment
(*Indicates a bloody mess, except for the apple, which was a soupy mess. My friend threw an apple at my forehead and then it dropped into my chicken noodle soup.)

Here are some thoughts from my childhood:

When I was little I remember seeing certain TV shows and movies in black & white and I asked my mom why they weren't in color. She told me it was because they were old. So then I thought the cartoons I watched would become black & white when they got old. I'm glad they didn't. He-Man would have been really boring.

I made up my first joke when I was about six years old: What do you get when you cross a bunny with a frog? A bunny-ribbit! Oh, c'mon, that's pretty good for a six year old.

Also when I was little, I saw the movie "Jaws" and I thought he lived in my grandfather's pool so I only swam in the shallow end.

And with that, I think I'll get out of the pool now. Sorry for subjecting you to some of that nonsense. I wasn't really in a deep thinking kind of mood today. My brain needs some rest. Come back tomorrow for more!

Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ Reduce, Reuse, Re-Create

2009-07-15T08:49:00.018-04:00

Over the past couple years I've been trying to be more conscious about what I do with my garbage. I recycle at home, but there are no recycling bins at work, so I started taking my recyclables home from work with me. I'm trying to become as green as I can one step at a time. But there are some people out there doing something more than just throwing their recyclables into bins, they're creating with those recycled objects. Today we're going to look at some creative objects that were made not just for the sake of art, but objects that have practical uses as well.

Here are some creative uses for newspapers and paper tubes. They can be found at Ecoble:

Artist Sumer Erek is using newspapers not only to create an interesting interior wall design, but the newspapers also act as insulation.

Architect Shigeru Ban has built many things out of paper tubes, including this bridge made out of 281 cardboard tubes as well as recycled paper and plastic. It rests on a foundation of wooden boxes packed with sand. The bridge can hold about 20 people at a time.

Click here to see more things like this at Ecoble.

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Take a look at this furniture made out of carpet samples over at Design Swan:

This is called the Carpet Sqr'd Chair. It takes 60 carpet samples to create this. Used carpets and rugs generate up to 2.6 million tons of waste per year, I'm glad somebody is putting it to good use.

This one is called the Green Screen. This one takes over 150 carpet samples to make and can be put together easily with some simple tools. It can be used to separate living areas and dampen sound. It could also probably be used to "fishbowl" a drummer.

This one is called RUGBURM. Looks comfy!

Find more interesting objects like these ones by clicking here.

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Here are a few more things found at the Web Urbanist:

This lighting fixture was created by Castor Canadensis. He has taken old burned out florescent tubes and given them new life. Even though they don't work anymore they can be used to diffuse light and emit a warm glow perfect for a comfortable atmosphere.

These chairs and stand are made out of crushed aluminum cans. They were created by Amir Zinaburg. I would have linked to his website, but he doesn't seem to have one, but I found a quote by Amir that says, "In nowadays, in urban surroundings, the only nature that is available to us is an artificial one, one that is manufactured, like city gardens and traffic islands. Waste has become an integral part of our modern lives, a kind of urban nature, and that is why it can be regarded as a raw material like any other."

These tables are made out of old bike rims and were created by Andrew Gregg. He also makes chairs, benches, love seats, barstools, and accessories out of old bike parts.

Find these and other objects by visiting the Web Urbanist by clicking here.

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Last, but not least, my friend Natalie (who I've mentioned on this blog before) has been making her own jewelry and other products out of recycled objects. She has a bunch of stuff for sale on her Etsy page which can be found here. She is also selling water bottles. 100% of the proceeds of the water bottle sales will go to charity: water. I talked about them last month. So remember to recycle and if the creativity bug bites you, don't smush it! Thank it, and then go out there and create!

Story Time Tuesday ~ WWWE: It's All Natural

2009-07-14T08:43:00.006-04:00

Job #5 was at a health food store called Freshlife, and you probably thought I was going to say McDonald's or Burger King based on the photo above. This was one of my favorite jobs. My job was to fill bags with nuts, dried fruit, rice, beans, granola, etc. to the right weight it and put it out on the shelves. I had other duties as well like straightening up the shelves, taking inventory, and shipping things out. I was introduced to a lot of different foods. I ate an ice cream sandwich made of tofu and it tasted like a real ice cream sandwich, it even had the same texture. I tried a Boca burger topped with garden fresh tomatoes, lettuce, Nayonaise, Fakin Bacon, and a slice of rice cheese. It was pretty good! I forget what kind of ketchup was on it but it was also a healthy alternative. They had a soda called China Cola that I liked too.

It was a great job, all my co-workers were great and my boss was one of the best bosses I've ever had. She was tough and made sure we did our jobs, but at the same time she was compassionate and understood if we were going through a rough time and was always cooperative if we needed time off. She definitely wasn't cold and uncomprimising like so many other employers I've had.

I made a really great friend while working there. His name is Ryan and he was the stockroom manager. We both worked back in the stock room so we got to talk all day. I was at a point in my life where I had just come to the realization of who Jesus Christ was, what he meant to me, and what he did for everyone. I was "on fire" which is a phrase a lot of Christians like to use. But I was very cocky and arrogant which is a trap that a lot of newbie Christians fall into. Ryan was also a believer but he showed me that I needed to mellow out a little and that I couldn't go around acting like I was better than everyone just because I was a follower of Christ. He taught me so much. Of course, years later I again fell into the trap of becoming a cocky, arrogant, self-righteous, (insert your own adjective here) of a person again. I recovered from that as well and I've talked about it before...just click here.

Ryan and I became really good friends. Cheesy music would play throughout the store and there was some that sounded like the background music from an episode of "The Dukes of Hazzard". So Ryan and I would act like we were narrating an episode just like Waylon Jennings. We'd say stuff like "Now them Duke boys had gotten themselves into a heap of trouble. Boss Hogg was gonna get em' this time, I reckon." We were weird.

A few of us from work were going to see "Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery" at the theater one Saturday, but Ryan never showed up. I called and he didn't answer his phone. He wasn't at work the following Monday either. I received a call from him Monday after work. It was hard to understand what he was saying but what had happened was he went to a river lot party on Friday night and he took his dog with him. When he let his dog out of the car it ran up to two men and one of the men kicked Ryan's dog. Ryan came up to them and said "Kick my dog again and I'm going to kick you." Both of the men attacked Ryan and left him in pretty bad shape. He was bruised all over and his jaw was broken, it had to be wired shut.

Ryan came back a few days later and he looked horrible. He could only drink through a straw, so he drank a lot of smoothies. One day at work he said to me through his wired jaw, "When I get this stuff off, you and me are going to Burger King!" I agreed. I can't remember how long he had to have his jaw wired shut, but I think it was a month or two. He lost about 40 pounds, and he didn't have much weight on him to lose in the first place. We did what he said and we went to Burger King shortly after he had the wires taken off. Over time he gained back all the weight he had lost, and then some. Ryan's dog was okay too. He would bring him to work everyday and tie him out back. His name was Newman, named after the character from Seinfeld, I think. Ryan liked to call him "Sweet Sir Newman".

I got to know a few of the other people that worked there too. I used to carpool to work with a girl named Shelly. We would often repeat lines from Chris Farley and David Spade movies like "Black Sheep" and "Tommy Boy". There was a woman who worked there named Gail and she did a lot of community outreach stuff. We had her as a guest speaker at Valley Mosaic one time. Then there was an older lady who kept on calling me Dennis. I corrected her the first few times, but she would keep on calling me Dennis, so I let it go. It was like the episode of "Friends" that Chris Parnell from SNL guest starred on and thought Chandler's name was Toby.

The time finally came for me to leave that job because I would be moving to York, PA soon to go to college. They threw me a going away party at Pizza Hut. It was funny to see all these people who I thought were vegans and vegetarians ripping into Meat Lovers pizzas, it was awesome. I invited a friend along. I told Ryan that my friend looked like Drew Carey. The day after the going away party, I stopped by to visit Ryan at work and I said, "Did you think my friend looked like Drew Carey?" He said "Drew Carey? I thought you said Jim Carrey. I was trying to figure out all night how the heck he even came close to looking like Jim Carrey."

Ryan and I kept in touch for awhile. A few weeks after moving to York, I received a phone call. The person on phone said in a really stern voice "Is this Daniel Lewis?" I said "Yes." Then the person said "I heard you had girls in your apartment." Then he started laughing and I knew then it was Ryan. He continued to work at Freshlife and I would be sure to stop by and visit whenever I was in town. I lost contact with him when he quit his job there and I haven't really seen him since. There was one time though when I was at the courthouse in Williamsport and I saw him walking onto an elevator. I got his attention and he saw me and waved just as the elevator doors were shutting. That was the last time I saw him, it was about six years ago.

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WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part VI

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part V

WWWE: Six Years of Hope - Part IV

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Freakin' Funny Friday ~ Big Old Box of Crap

Deep Thought Thursday ~ Swimming in the Shallow End

Artsy Fartsy Wednesday ~ Reduce, Reuse, Re-Create

Story Time Tuesday ~ WWWE: It's All Natural

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